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r^$^  p^niis 


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PROPERTY  INTERESTS 


CITY   OF    CHICAGO. 


t^itih:     nvn^^jps 


|I\ipp : 


I'-^t^^ 


1869. 


(/' 


0.   R.   Field, 


Geo.  S.  King. 


L.     A.     WiLLARD. 


yXEl>15'  KING  &  Co., 

\m  and  fynl  j%ki^  Igciit,^ 


BUY  AND  SELL  PROPERTY. 


MONEY  INVESTED  ON  BOND  &  FIRST  MORTGAGE 


CORPORATIONS,  ESTATES   AND  INDIVIDUALS. 


ntieHtmente  made  for   :(}on-][fstdente  or  o%rB 


t?.a.x:es     :e*j^xid,     eto 


No.    115    DEARBORN    STREET. 

A-FTJER    ]MA.Y    1st, 

Basement  of  First  National   Bank   Building, 

COR,  STATE  AND  WASHINGTON  STREETS, 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2010  witii  funding  from 

CARLI:  Consortium  of  Academic  and  Researcii  Libraries  in  Illinois 


http://www.archive.org/details/parkspropertyintOOIawr 


THE    PARKS 


AKD 


PROPERTY  INTERESTS 


OW   THB 


CITY    OF    CHICAGO, 


WITH    MAPS, 


CHICAGO: 
•v^  E  s  T  E  n  Kr    3srE"WS    c  o  ]N^c  i» -A.  isr -s- . 

18  6  9.  ^ 

i 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1569, 

bt  the  western  sews  compact, 

In  the  Qerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Northern 
District  of  Illinois. 


Rasp,  'Uc'Sa.ii.y  A  Co.,  PsrSTiBa,  51  Clabk  Stbebt,  Chicago. 


THE     PEOPEETY    LN'TEEESTS    OE    THE 
CITY    OF    CHICAGO. 


Of  all  men  in  tlie  world,  a  Chicagoan,  when  he  finds  a  fact, 
palpable  and  indisputable,  shonld  accept  it  as  a  fact  Had  this 
always  been  done  in  the  history  of  our  city,  it  would  have  been 
fer  better  for  the  metropolis.  But  there  have  been  thousands, 
among  influential  citizens  too,  to  whom  the  persistent  growth 
of  the  city  has  been  well  nigh  as  astonishing  as  to  the  most 
fossilized  Philadelphian  who  could  n't,  or  the  most  bigoted  St 
Louisian  who  would  n't,  see  what  it  seems  culpable  for  a  resi- 
dent not  to  see. 

In  the  estimation  of  these,  every  advance  in  real  estate  has 
been  the  result  of  some  artificial  effort  to  inflate  the  market 
Always,  a  reaction  was  about  to  set  in,  and  dechne  far  below 
the  starting  point  was  speedily  to  come.  The  man  of  moderate 
means,  who  had,  in  his  abounding  faith,  gone  his  bottom  dollar 
in  making  a  first  payment,  was  held  up  as  a  miracle  of  blind 
folly ;  and  those  contemplating  such  a  preceding  were  coun- 
seled to  make  some  better  use  of  their  money — to  put  it  into 
a  savings  bank,  or  buy  an  insurance  policy  with  it — anything 
better,  nothing  worse,  than  this.  Still,  these  transactions  have 
gone  on,  and,  alike  in  the  case  of  men  of  small  and  of  large  means, 
a  speedy  and  liberal  return  has  come.  Of  the  hundreds  who, 
every  week,  have  thus,  as  the  cant  phrase  goes,  been  "discount- 
insr  the  future  of  the  citv,"'  we  have  vet  to  learn,  in  a  wide 
observation,  of  the  first  instance  in  which  the  poor  have  been 
made  poorer,  or  the  rich  failed  to  become  richer,  by  the  trans- 
action. 

Of  similar  character  have  been  the  criticims  passed  by  many 
citizens  on  our  building  enterprises.  In  the  estimation  of 
one,  the  neat  wooden  structures  constantly  filling  the  suburbs. 


4  The  Paries   and  Property  Interests 

five  or  six  thousand  of  them  every  year,  to  become  pleasant, 
independent  homes  of  the  laboring  and  middle  classes,  are  con- 
sidered as  a  mere  shell  ephemerally  put  on  in  a  moment  of 
unhealthful  growth,  which  the  city  must  speedily  slough  off,  and 
stand  before  the  world  in  her  repulsive  primitive  nakedness ; 
while  another  looked  upon  such  structures  as  Palmer's  Building, 
the  Merchants'  Insurance  Building,  and  the  First  National 
Bank  Building,  as  either  a  capricious  waste  of  capital,  or 
an  insane  attempt  to  advertise  the  owner's  business,  or  enable 
him  to  sell  his  adjacent  lots  in  a  rising  market.  Amid  all  this 
building  activity,  rents  were  to  speedily  and  disastrously  decline  ; 
the  city,  filled  by  the  war,  was,  on  the  return  of  peace,  to  dis- 
charge her  "  surplus  "  population  into  the  agricultural  districts  ; 
"speculators,"  as  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Trade  were 
indiscriminately  termed,  were  to  retire  to  their  rural  haunts, 
despoiled  and  crest-fallen;  and  Chicago,  in  spite  of  her  popula- 
tion growing  steadily  and  rapidly  amid  all — her  multiplying 
marts,  her  expanding  commerce,  her  enlarged  and  increasing 
connections  with  a  vast  galaxy  of  commonwealths,  each  capable 
of  feeding  a  vast  metropolis, — was  to  return  to  the  rank  of  a 
provincial  town.  Palmer's  Building  was  "too  fine,"  forsooth, 
to  accommodate  an  annual  trade  by  a  single  firm  of  ten  or 
twelve  millions ! 

But  the  work  has  gone  on ;  all  these  dwellings  and  stores 
and  offices  have  been  occupied.  At  no  time  in  the  recent  his- 
tory of  the  city*  has  there  been,  at  this  period  of  the  year,  a 
firmer  feeling  in  rents  of  all  kinds.  Business,  too,  is  changing 
its  locale^  which  is  itself  evidence  of  healthy,  vigorous  life ;  res- 
idence portions  of  the  city  here,  and  degraded  localities  there, 
are  becoming  the  scene  of  the  most  substantial  improvements 
and  the  heaviest  commercial  and  financial  transactions ;  (wit- 
ness the  "  Hausmannizing "  of  State  street) ;  while  other 
branches  do  not  fail  to  crowd  into  the  vacant  places  in  the  old 
localities. 

Chicago,  then,  is  a /ad, — such  a  fact  as  we  characterized  in 
the  beginning,  which  no  rival  non-resident  can  ignore,  and  no 
croaking  citizen  depreciate.  Every  decade,  every  year,  there 
have  been  hundreds  to  deprecate  the  enthusiastic  forecastings 
of  the  most  experienced  and  sagacious  of  our  citizens,  and  say : 


of  the  City  of  Chicago. 


"  It  can  not  be !  "  But  it  is,  nevertheless ;  and  we  firmly  be- 
lieve is  still  more  to  be. 

The  ground  of  our  faith  lies,  first  of  all,  in  the  fact  that  there 
could  have  been  no  city  here  at  all  had  not  some  extraordinary 
interest  and  need  external  to  itself  compelled  it.  The  site,  as 
nature  made  it,  was  surely  about  the  last  that  man  would  have 
chosen  for  business  or  a  home.  There  was  nothing,  apparently, 
to  bring  a  metropolis  here  ;  but  it  came.  There  was  even  less 
to  keep  it  here  after  it  came — little  pleasant,  healthful  ground  ; 
no  water  supply ;  no  building  materials  convenient ; — yet  when 
it  came  it  persistently  stayed.  It  had  few  natural  thoroughfares 
of  communication  with  the  vast  regions  yet  unsettled,  on  which 
the  metropolis  was  to  grow,  if  grow  it  must, — a  boisterous  lake 
on  the  one  hand,  washing  unpromising  shores  in  a  higher  lati- 
tude; on  the  other,  a  river,  accessible  only  by  an  artificial  chan- 
nel, yet  to  be  dug  ; — but  to-day,  in  the  brief  space  of  half  a 
generation,  Chicago  surpasses  all  but  two  or  three  of  the  capitals 
of  the  world  in  facilities  of  communication,  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year,  with  its  vast  and  growing  dependencies.  From  a  dreary  out- 
post, planted  apart  from  any  lines  of  commerce,  lying  helpless 
in  the  mud  of  the  prairie  primeval,  she  has  already  grown  to  be 
in  truth  a  metropolis,  in  which  center  the  expanding  interests 
and  energies  of  growing  States  and  cities ;  a  vast,  well-appointed 
and  well-administered  municipality,  with  beautiful  streets,  ade- 
quate sewerage,  a  water  supply  the  purest  and  most  exhaustless 
in  the  world,  a  vigorous  government  that  does  not  manipulate  a 
yard  of  red  tape,  and  is  free  from  a  single  tradition  or  suspicion 
of  dishonesty  and  favoritism  ;  a  city  of  homes,  and  schools,  and 
churches,  and  benevolent  institutions,  and  presses,  and  arts,  and 
manufactories. 

On  the  other  hand,  looking  not  at  what  the  city  was  to  begin 
with,  but  at  what  it  is,  and  what  is  the  food  on  which  it  lives, 
surprise  at  the  reality  gives  place  to  almost  wonder  that  it  is  not 
more  and  greater.  For,  lying  behind  the  great  fact  of  the  city, 
are  greater  facts  which  justify  an  expectation  beyond  what  the 
most  sagacious  or  sanguine  have  indulged.  These, — too  numer- 
ous to  consider  in  detail,  and  fortunately  too  familiar  and  obvi- 
ous to  need  to  be  more  than  suggested,-^are  all  to  be  referred, 
first,  to  the  extent  and  richness  of  the  region  which  the  city 


The  Paries  and  Property  Interests 

immediately  subsidizes ;  secondly,  to  the  relations  which  capital 
is  establishing  between  it  and  more  remote  lands  and  interests. 
The  writer  of  this  once  made  the  acquaintance,  during  an 
excursion  on  the  opening  of  a  new  Illinois  railway,  of  an 
English  gentleman  long  resident  in  one  of  our  Southern  States, 
and  who  had  thoroughly  caught  the  spirit  of  our  life.  He  had 
been  accustomed  to  wonder  what  all  these  lines  of  railways 
meant — what  occasion  there  could  be  for  them, — which  covered 
the  Prairie  State  like  a  net- work.  "But,"  said  he,  "  the  mystery  is 
now  solved ;  I  have  but  to  ride  over  Illinois  to  see  what  they 
mean.  I  wonder  that  there  are  not  more  of  them."  Chicago  can 
scarcely  be  called  a  great  city  in  fact  yet, — only  a  quarter 
of  a  million  inhabitants;  and  he  who  estimates  fairly  the  re- 
sources of  Illinois  alone  must  see  that  they  are  more  than 
enough,  and  are  sufficiently  tributary  to  Chicago  to  secure  her 
present  status  forever.  But  suppose  we  were  to  leave  out  of  the 
account  Illinois,  Southern  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Kansas,  and  so  on, 
and  give  their  resources  to  St.  Louis,  to  reach  the  seaboard  at 
Norfolk  by  some  more  southern  route  than  those  securely  estab- 
lished ;  there  yet  remain  in  Wisconsin,  Southern  Iowa,  Minne- 
sota, Dakotah,  Nebraska,  and  regions  farther  west,  more  than 
resources  enough  to  give  her  a  metropolitan  growth  increasing 
for  all  time.  Does  any  one  doubt  that  these  are  assured  to 
Chicago  ?  The  proposed  Northern  Pacific  Eailroad  is  no  less 
a  Chicago  interest  than  are  the  Union  or  Central  Pacific  to  be. 
The  freshest  tyro  in  Lake  Superior  topography  and  climatalogy 
knows  that  the  talk  about  Eastern  railway  outlets  in  that  direc- 
tion is  the  sheerest  nonsense.  Whatever  of  trade  from  those  vast 
regions  north  of  the  latitude  of  Chicago  does  not  reach  Eastern 
markets  by  vessel,  must  infallibly  come  here,  while  the  lake 
marine  engaged  therein  will  more  and  more  be  owned  and  con- 
trolled here.  There  is  nothing  disastrous  to  Chicago  preten- 
sions in  the  Northern  Pacific  Eailway  scheme,  and  if  there  were, 
the  danger  would  be  little  imminent  in  view  of  the  status  of  the 
Pacific  road  already  built  Col.  Hudworth,  of  the  Union  Pa- 
cific, recently  delivered  an  address,  in  which,  recognizing 
all  that  has  been  claimed  for  Paget  Sound  as  the  most  availa- 
ble entrepot  for  the  Arctic  trade,  it  was  demonstrated  that  that 
harbor  can  best  be  reached  by  a  system  of    Union    Pacific 


of  the  City  of  Chicago, 


branches, — up  to  Montana  and  Idaho,  thence  on  to  Oregon  and 

Washington  territory.  Plans,  indeed,  it  was  asserted  months 
ago  by  the  Springfield  (Mass.)  Bepublican^  have  been  perfected 
for  branches  to  the  Union  Pacific,  that  will  take  in  all  the 
Northwestern  States  and  Territories.  These  branches,  so  far  as 
Washington  or  Oregon  are  concerned,  can  be  opened  by  1871, 
at  latest,  as  they  involve  but  eight  hundred  miles  of  new  road, 
and  accomplish  far  better  the  same  end  which  has  been  proposed 
in  the  construction  of  the  northern  line  of  1,800  miles  under 
the  stimulus  of  a  government  grant  which  is  not  forthcoming. 

In  this  connection  the  project  of  an  Isthmus  ship  canal,  as 
calculated  to  divert  oriental  commerce  powerfully  and  perma- 
nently from  the  Chicago  trans- continental  railway  line,  merits 
consideration.  We  refer  our  readers  to  an  elaborate  article  in 
the  New  York  Commercial  and  Financial  Chronicle  of  February 
27th,*  in  which  .it  is  demonstrated,  first,  that  Seward's  Darien 
project  is  impracticable,  short,  at  least,  of  a  score  or  more  of 
years,  while,  secondly,  there  is  no  demand  for  it,  in  view  of  the 
early  completion  of  the  Pacific  road,  actual  and  projected.  If 
built,  it  would  be  available  for  steamers  only,  since  sailing  ves- 
sels, in  order  to  pass  through  it,  would  have  to  be  towed  to  and 
from  a  point  two  hundred  miles  at  sea,  through  a  region  of 
perpetual  calms,  or  light,  fitful  and  baffling  winds,  before  reach- 
ing the  track  of  north-east  and  south-west  trade  winds.  They 
could  go  round  Cape  Horn  far  more  profitably,  considering  the 
canal  toll,  the  cost  of  tonnage,  and  the  increased  insurance  pre- 
miums over  rates  chargeable  on  vessels  keeping  in  the  open 
sea. 

Coming  to  another  series  of  recent  events,  what  is  this  "  bat- 
tle of  the  railways  "  of  which  so  much  has  been  heard  of  late, 
but  a  strife  among  the  great  track  lines  penetrating  the  interior 
from  the  seaboard,  in  which  each  has  sought,  if  not  to  exclude 
the  other,  to  secure  to  itself  permanent  connections  with  the 
vast  railway  system  of  Chicago.  Chicago,  as  the  New  York 
Times  declared,  was  the  real  objective  point  of  the  war.  The 
traffic  of  the  great  West — of  the  rapidly  developing  regions 
beyond  the  Mississippi  valley  and  beyorid  the  backbone  of  the 

*  Quoted  in  the  Chicago  Railway  Review  of  March  11th. 


8  The  Paries  and  Property  Interests 


continent,  even  of  the  Pacific  ocean  and  of  Asia — was  the  prize ; 
and  Chicago,  being  "  the  concentrating  point  of  all  that  vast 
traffic  "  (these  are  the  Times^  well-considered  words),  became  the 
goal  which  it  was  necessary  to  win.  Without  that,  the  New 
York  and  Erie  cannot  compete  for  the  Pacific  trade  with  either 
of  its  powerful  rivals,  the  New  York  Central  or  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Central.  With  that,  the  three  grand  trunk  lines  will 
stand  on  a  footing  of  equal  advantage.  "  This  contest  being 
decided  in  the  common  interest  of  all,  the  next  struggle,"  says 
the  New  York  Tribune,  "  will  be  for  the  control  of  the  lines  from 
Chicago  to  Omaha."  The  Northwestern  road  is  already  in  op- 
eration, and  by  July  the  Chicago,  Eock  Island  k  Pacific,  and 
Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  companies  will  have  complet- 
ed their  lines  to  the  same  point ;  so  that  there  will  be  three  in- 
dependent lines  in  operation  from  the  seaboard  through  Chicago 
connecting  with  the  Union  Pacific  by  the  time  that  road  is 
completed. 

Not  less  full  of  promise  to  Chicago  would  be  an  examination 
of  the  Kansas  system  of  roads,  enjoying  common  connection 
with  Chicago  at  Leavenworth  (where,  or  at  Omaha,  there  is  a 
magnificent  Eailroad  Bridge,  building.)  Through  this  the 
best  region  of  New  Mexico  and  Texas  will  be  brought  to  our 
door.  It  is,  indeed,  not  without  reasons  grateful  to  Chicago, 
that  such  of  her  citizens  as  Mr.  Sturges,  and  such  railroad 
managers  in  her  interest  as  Mr.  Joy,  are  interesting  themselves 
in  the  Kansas  railway  system.  , 

Now  the  maxim  that  Goldsmith  puts  into  the  mouth  of  one 
of  his  characters  is  pertinent  to  all  this:  "Whatever  is,  w." 
Say  that  all  this  growth  and  activity, — so  varied,  so  intense,  so 
far-reaching,  so  hopeful  and  determined, — which  constitute 
Chicago,  are  past  finding  out  in  their  remote  cause ;  say  that 
a  metropolis  so  entirely  out  of  what  might  have  been  expected 
to  be  the  course  of  trans-Mississippi  commerce  from  seaboard 
to  seaboard,  was  ostensibly  improbable.  Yet,  how  far  more 
improbable  now, — a  great,  growing,  wealthy,  ambitious  metrop- 
olis once  built  here,  productive  capital  once  accumulated  and 
utilized  here,  a  dozen  great  and  extending  railroad  lines  once 
concentrated  here  from  East,  West,  North  and  South, — that 
such  a  change  as  some  anticipate,  indeed  that  any  change  for 


of  the  City  of  Chicago. 


the  worse,  should  take  place  within  our  century  in  the  center 
and  current  of  enterprise  once  established  at  so  great  cost,  and 
founded  deep  in  the  harmony  of  so  many  vast,  distinct  and 
otherwise  conflicting  interests.  Consider  alone  the  railroad 
business  ;  throw  out  of  the  problem  altogether  all  others — 
stock,  grain,  etc.,  equally  commanding ;  and  reflect  what  con- 
cern the  old  roads  which  are  constantly  expending  their  income 
in  iacreasing  their  facilities,  and  the  new  roads  which  at 
immense  cost  are  incessantly  pushing  into  new  fields  and  sub- 
ordinizing  them,  have  in  the  perpetuity  of  arrangements  whose 
solidest  motive  lies  thus  far  almost  solely  in  the  future. 
"  Whatever  w,  IS."  That  these  vital  connections  with  sur- 
rounding commonwealths  once  exist,  is  the  strongest  possible 
reason  why  they  should^continue  to  exist.  Hard-earned  capital, 
dear-bought  commercial  experience, — bringing  to  their  aid 
sciences  laboriously  built  up  and  arts  patiently  mastered, — are 
little  quixotic.  The  cost  will  be  ever  counted  of  expending 
millions  in  first  establishing  channels  of  trade  and  then  another 
thousand  millions  in  directing  it  therefrom.  Simply  because  it 
is  cheaper  to  employ  the  old  than  to  construct  new  ones,  the 
old  will  be  employed ;  and  capital  seeking  investment  will  find 
it  in  existing  enterprises,  in  preference  to  expending  itself  on 
the  superfluous  and  problematical.  The  only  necessity  that  can 
lead  to  the  opening  of  other  lines  will  be  that  which  lies  in  the 
fact  that  existing  lines  have  become  inadequate  to  the  increased 
demand  ;  and  in  that  fact  we  find  the  very  promise  of  Chicago's 
greatness,  in  which  her  citizens  have  such  an  abiding  faith,  and 
which  is  now  so  stimulating  capital  to  seek  an  investment 
here. 

We  say  "  investment,"  generally ;  for  in  this  respect  the  real 
estate  "  movement "  is  but  the  complement  of  an  activity 
which  extends  to  commerce  not  onl^,  but  embraces  manufac- 
turing enterprise,  and  the  growth  of  the  arts,  useful  and  orna- 
mental as  well.  The  expenditure  of  eight  or  ten  millions 
annually  in  building,  and  the  ten  or  twelve  millions  of  real 
estate  transfers,  in  which  from  fifty  to  seventy -five  millions  of 
money  annually  changes  hands,,  constitute  a  fact  too  great  to 
be  considered  as  standing  by  itself.  It  has  its  meaning  in 
facts  equally  momentous  and  imposing. 


10  The  Paries  and  Property  Inteo^esta 

And  just  here,  before  passing  to  consider  two  or  three  specific 
features  of  the  real  estate  movement  since  the  close  of  the  war, 
and  in  the  light  of  this  experience  to  forecast  others,  we  wish 
to  rescue  the  interest  from  a  reproach  which  the  unscrupulous 
or  inconsiderate  have  sought  to  fasten  upon  it  by  the  use  of  a 
sensational  and  absurd  epithet.  Among  those  who  seem 
sincerely  or  affect  to  regard  the  real  estate  movement  as  facti- 
tious and  unwarranted,  we  hear  men  triumphantly  referring  to 
periods  like  that  subsequent  to  1857,  when  several  years  elapsed 
ere  purchasers  realized  what  they  had  paid  for  ground  at  a  time 
of  undue  inflation ;  or  that  midway  in  the  war,  when,  amid  the 
uncertainty  of  those  dark  days,  and  the  diversion  of  capital  to 
war  industries,  prices  were  nominal  and  sales  few.  By  such 
we  have  now  and  then  heard  it  said,  "  There  is  a  '  corner '  in 
real  estate."  Now  the  application  of  this  term  to  speculative 
transactions  is  sufficiently  understood.  It  applies  to  transac- 
tions in  which,  first,  some  product  literally  transferable  is  dealt 
in,  like  grain,  gold,  bonds,  etc.,  something  which  may  thus  itself 
be  used  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  and  in  which,  secondly, 
owing  to  their  transferableness,  those  products  may  be  concen- 
trated in  the  hands  of  a  few  here  or  there,  carried  from  city  to 
city,  locked  up  and  unlocked,  and  pass  from  clique  to  clique. 
Now,  as  regards  real  estate,  neither  is  it  such  a  medium,  nor 
can  its  representations — in  the  shape  of  contracts,  mortgages, 
deeds,  etc.  —  become  so,  owing  to  the  uncertainty  which 
characterizes  their  validity  and  value,  until  after  a  tedious 
examination  of  the  history  of  the  title  in  each  case.  Nor  is  the 
commercial  interest  in  real  estate  sufficiently  simple,  determinate 
and  mobile  (so  to  speak)  to  admit  of  the  concentration  of  its 
interests  largely  in  the  hands  of  a  few.  In  the  nature  of  things 
there  can  be  no  unity  of  action,  nor  motive  therefor,  among  so 
many,  with  a  view  to  a  scheme  for  swindling  the  general  public ; 
while  the  number  of  those  who  must  sell  what  they  hold  or 
buy  for  delivery,  what  they  have  contracted  to  pay  at  a  given 
date  (the  imperative  conditions  of  a  "  corner  ")  will  always  be 
very  small,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  those  who  hold  their 
property  under  circumstances  known  only  to  themselves,  and 
which  no  clique  or  ring  can  take  advantage  of.  In  this  connec- 
tion let  us  note  the  prevailing  fact  in  regard  to  Chicago  real 


•  of  the  City  of  Chicago.  11 

estate — that  this  "movement,"  this  growth,  has  been  iden- 
tical with  that  of  the  city  in  population,  industry,  and  commer- 
cial importance ;  in  all  of  which,  carrying  real  estate  along  with 
it,  ^  there  has,  upon  the  whole,  been  decided  progress  from 
decade  to  decade.  Of  the  two  or  three  periods  of  depression 
that  have  been  experienced,  not  one  has  extended  to  five  years. 
As  with  the  ocean,  there  has  been  recession  here  and  there,  and 
now  and  then ;  but  these  have  been  of  the  nature  of  an  ebb 
in  the  tide,  which,  to  those  who  have  had  faith  and  pluck 
.  enough  to  take  it,  has  soon  proved  a  flood  tide,  and  borne  them 
on  to  fortune. 

The  particular  explanation  of  this  is  found  in  the  even  pace 
which  building  enterprise  and  real  estate  activity  have  uniform- 
ly kept.  Our  readers  will  remember  how,  on  the  removal  of 
Camp  Douglas,  the  ground  of  that  and  adjoining  localities  was 
subdivided  and  sold.  Prominent  among  these  transactions  was 
the  sale  of  the  Grove  property,  and  the  Wentworth  tract — 
three  years  and  a  year  and  a  half  ago  respectively.  The  former 
was  held  at  about  ^35  per  foot — the  latter  at  from  $30  to  $50. 
The  price  seemed  large,  but  the  easy  terms  reconciled  purchasers 
to  it.  But  those  who  bought  only  in  the  expectation  of  taking 
advantage  of  the  long  time  and  paying  for  their  lots,  were- 
astonished  at  finding  them  within  a  year  double  in  value  on 
their  hands.  The  reason  was  that  the  ground  was  near ;  that 
improvements  were  begun  on  every  hand;  and  now  the  few 
choice  lots  in  these  tracts  which  can  be  had  at  all,  readily 
command  from  three  to  four  times  the  price  then  paid  for  them.. 
The  same  thing  has  been  repeated  scores  of  times,  until  now 
Chicago  is  well-nigh  surrounded  on  every  hand— although  the 
South  Side  has  taken  the  lead — with  subdivisions,,  which  have 
been  built  up  and  become  homogeneous  with,  the  city.  There 
has  been  no  special  effort  made  by  dealers,  beyond  regular 
advertising  and  auction  sales  —  both  of  which  are  quite  as 
legitimate  in  real  estate  as  in  any  other  branch  of  business,  to 
increase  this  activity.  It  is  simply  a  fact  in  the  history  of  the 
normal  growth  of  a  city  that  has  grown  because  grow  it  must. 
The  average  of  new  buildings  for  three  years  past  has  been,  we 
suppose,  about  seven  thousand  annually.  That  a  majority 
(though  by  no  means  a  great  majority)  of  these  are  of  wood, 


12  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests 

does  not  affect  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  thej  have 
been  built,  and  serve  a  purpose.  Thev  are  of  wood,  simply 
because  the  market  does  not  abound  in  a  more  solid  material. 
Among  those  within  from  two  to  three  miles  of  the  Court  House, 
the  number  of  really  first-class  business  and  residence  structures 
is  very  great ;  indeed,  not  a  few  of  the  former  are  fully  the 
equals,  both  in  style  and  in  solidity  of  construction,  of  the  best 
to  be  found  in  New  York. 

The  whole  movement,  land  and  building,  finds  a  parallel  only 
in  that  which  has  been  going  on  in  New  York  during  the  same 
period.  It  is  a  movement  of  the  residence  population  up  town, 
and  corresponding  changes  in  the  localities  of  the  wholesale 
and  retail  business.  The  opening  of  Central  Park,  in  New 
York,  was  attended  with  the  same  results  as  the  putting  into 
market  of  our  South  Side  Grove  property,  and  will  no  doubt 
find  a  completer  parallel,  though  probably  not  in  so  short  a 
time,  in  the  location  and  opening  of  our  South  Side  Park. 
One  year  ago,  for  example,  a  dealer  bought  at  auction  a  piece 
of  land  near  the  Central  Park,  for  $5,000,  which  he  has  just 
disposed  of  for  $10,000.  Attention  is  now  largely  directed  to 
localities  still  further  north,  around  Fort  "Washington  ;  and  \\i 
the  population  of  New  York  increases  in  the  same  ratio  as  it 
has  done  since  1825,  it  will,  twenty  years  hence,  contain 
2,000,000  people,  and  all  the  available  parts  of  the  island  will 
be  occupied  with  improvements.  During  that  period,  either 
New  York  will  fail  to  exhibit  this  progress,  or  Chicago  will 
continue  to  progress  in  the  same  ratio  as  heretofore  of  late 
years.  The  ten  years  will,  at  this  rate,  give  Chicago  from  one- 
half  to  three-fourths  of  a  million  of  inhabitants ;  and  the  result 
of  a  doubling  or  trebling  of  our  population  is  such  that  the 
most  unstudied  can  calculate  it.  Notwithstanding  this  fact, 
the  Chicago  Tribune^  we  see,  regards  it  as  "  perfectly  absurd  to 
compare  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  '  outside  property  '  of  this 
city  with  that  of  lots  on  the  upper  end  of  New  York  Island." 
Its  chief  reason  is  found  in  the  fact,  that  the  proposed  additions 
to  -Chicago  will  swell  its  corporate  limits  from  its  present  area 
of  28  square  miles  (New  York  Island  contains  21  square  miles) 
to  48  square  miles,  or,  including  Hyde  Park  and  Lake  View, 
66  square  miles.;  while  there  is  nothing  in  natural  circumstances 


of  the   City  of  Chicago.  13 

to  prevent  it  from  becoming  conterminous  with  Cook  county, 
or  even  the  State  of  Illinois  !  The  raillery  may  be  pardoned, 
on  the  ground  that  so  poor  an  argument  could  scarcely  be  pro- 
vocative of  anything  very  brilliant  or  original  in  the  way  of 
wit.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  a  city  to 
be  hemmed  in  by  maritime  or  mountain  barriers,  to  determine 
the  direction  and  laws  of  its  growth.  Precisely  because,  as  the 
Tribune  observes,  the  most  of  the  ground  about  Chicago  is  all 
"  one  vast  plain,"  will  the  city  not  occupy  it  indiscriminately. 
It  will  "get  the  best."  If  the  "  plain  "  is  anywhere  relieved  by 
flood,  forest,  or  hill,  population  will  be  attracted  thither; 
as,  in  fact,  going  along  the  lake  shore,  you  pass  among  fine 
buildings  for  six  miles,  north  and  south,  while  in  certain  other 
directions  you  encounter  the  open  prairies  within  two  and  one- 
half  miles  of  business.  The  observations  of  the  World 
concerning  the  current  movement  in  New  York,  have  applica- 
tion here : 

"  With  the  advent  of  spring  comes  a  large  variety  of  sub- 
urban property,  located  in  Westchester  county,  and  on  Long 
Island.  Farms  anywhere,  almost,  within  thirty  miles  of  the 
city,  are  being  purchased  and  cut  up  into  city  lots.  The 
best  solution  for  the  existing  difficulty  of  locating  for  our 
teeming  population  is  to  better  our  modes  of  communication, 
increase  the  rate  of  speed,  and  by  the  issuing  of  cheap 
commutation    tickets,    encourage   settlement   in   the   country. 

*  *  *  *  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  completion 
of  the  Pacific  Eailroad  will  have  an  influence  on  real  estate 
in  this  city.  The  present  movement  is  based  in  a  measure 
on  the  ^contingency  of  increased  trade  on  the  completion 
of  the  road  ;  yet  the  most  prudent  man  must  see  that 
these  are  the  most  available  points  for  the  flood  of  our  surplus 
population  to  spread  over.  No  serious  revulsion  can  therefore 
come  if  speculation  be  kept  within  moderate  bounds." 

It  is  to  be  remarked  in  this  connection,  that  the  only  cities 
in  which  the  real  estate  business  can  properly  be  termed  a 
"  movement,"  are  the  terminal  points  on  the  grand  central 
entrepot  of  the  Pacific  Road  and  the  Eastern  connections, — 
New  York,  San  Francisco,  and  Chicago.  Take  Cincinnati,  for 
example.     The  sales  for  the  week  ending  March  5th,  numbered 


14  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests 

but  69,  with  an  aggregate  of  $257,779.89,  compared  with  269 
sales  in  Chicago,  to  the  amount  of  $1,198,859,  showing  300 
per  cent,  greater  activity  here  than  in  Cincinnati.    A  comparison 
was  recently  made  in  the  New  York  Tribune  between  the  real 
estate  business  of  San  Francisco  and  Chicago,  showing  that  the 
transactions  of  the  former  city  were  nearly  equal  in  money 
value  to  those  of  the  latter.     But  Chicago  now  appears  to  be 
rapidly  leaving   her  western  competitor ;  since,    according  to 
Curtis'  Real  Estate  Circular^  there  were  during  January,  only 
492  sales  of  real  estate  in  all  sections  of  the  city  and  county 
of  San  Francisco,  for  an  aggregate  value  of  $2,716,823.     Now, 
the  movement  here  rivals  that  of  New  York, — the  number  of 
transfers  in  Chicago  during  the  last  three  weeks  of  February, 
being  241,  272,  and  240,  compared  with  238,  231,  and  173 
in   New  York.      On  Wednesday,    March  10,  there  were  38 
sales  in  New  York,  having   an  aggregate  value  of  $685,000. 
On   the   Saturday  previous,  there  were  in  Chicago  82  sales, 
amounting  to  $578,000.     It  is  notable  that  this. movement, 
which  has  indeed  been  continuous  for  three  years,  has  received 
little   help   from  the   press.      Indeed,  until  the  present  park 
agitation,  most  of  the  papers  have  been  accustomed  to  speak 
of  the  real  estate  business  deprecatingly,  if  not  contemptuously. 
The   prime   importance  of  the    park   schemes,   however,    and 
especially   the   certainty   that   if  lost   now   they  will  be   lost 
forever,  so  far  as  concerns  an  accessible  and  economical  location, 
have  united  most  of  the  papers  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the 
movement.     The  Tribune's  warning  to  "Stand  from   Under," 
although  proper  enough,  so  far  as  mere  speculation  is  concerned, 
had  little  force  when  based  on  considerations  like  the  following : 
"  When  we  see,  or  think  that  we  see,  an  effort  made  to  discount 
the  future  growth  of  Chicago  in  present  prices  of  prairie  land 
six   miles  away   from   business,    loithdrawing  capital  from  its 
legitimate    and   useful  channels  to  be  locked  up  in  park  fronts^ 
vfhere  there  are  no  parks,  we  shall  say  so."     By  all   means,  let 
the  ^rf&Mwe  "  say  so."     But  it  gives  expression  when  it  does 
"  say  so,"  to  a  novel  principle  of  political  economy.     That  is 
surely  a  curious  process  by  which  capital  can  be  "  locked  up  in 
park  fronts."     We  should  have  supposed  that  when  a  purchaser 
pays  over  money  for  a  piece  of  ground,  instead  of  locking  it 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  15 

up,  he  merely  transfers  it  to  the  other  party  to  the  bargain,  in 
whose  hands  it  is  quite  as  free  as  it  was  in  his  own,  or  in  the 
vaults  of  a  bank  !  Now,  certainly  he  cannot  be  accused  of 
locking  up  that  portion  which  he  merely  promises  to  pay. 
There  has,  we  suppose,  been  attracted  to  Chicago  for  direct 
investment  in  real  estate  the  past  year,  at  least  seven  millions  of 
dollars,  to  say  nothing  of  the  amount  which  has  been  loaned 
on  real  estate  securities.  Does  this  economical  philosopher 
regard  that  money  as  "  locked  up  "  here  ?  And,  if  so,  what 
of  the  other  millions  which  have  been  expended  on  improve- 
ments? Have  we  not  more  buildings,  better  streets,  a  more 
independent  municipal  treasury,  a  more  thriving  commerce, 
an  interior  and  more  manifold  social  life,  than  we  should  have 
had  had  these  millions  been  kept  "  locked  up "  in  Eastern 
strong  boxes  ?  Amono;  the  two  or  three  cities  that  have  almost 
not  felt  the  financial  derangement  of  the  past  few  years, 
Chicago  has  shared  with  New  York  aSone,  the  pre-eminence. 
And  why  ?  Because,  through  all,  she  has  continued  to  grow 
and  thrive  by  reason  of  the  commercial  facilities  which  she 
alone  has  offered  to  vast  States  which  cannot  remain  non-pro- 
ductive, and  which  must,  in  the  most  stagnant  season,  find  an 
outlet  and  market  for  that  portion  of  their  products  needed  to 
meet  cun'ent  necessities.  These  commonwealths  arc  the  chan- 
nels through  which  they  discharge  their  accumulating  products, 
— are  among  the  fixed  facts  which  capital  seeking  investment 
will  ever  respect. 

But  let  us  see  if  there  is  any  remote  sense  in  which  capital 
invested  in  these  park  fronts  is  "locked  up."  Is  it  locked  up 
to  the  investor,  in  the  sense  that  undue  time  must  elapse  ere 
he  gets  even  such  moderate  returns  as  he  is  accustomed  to  look 
for  at  home  ?  If  the  proposed  parks  are  so  far  away  from  the 
city  as  to  be  valueless  for  the  public  use  and  pleasure ;  if  they 
are  out  of  all  proportion,  as  regards  size,  to  the  present  or 
remote  wants  of  the  people  ;  if  their  improvement  is  going  to 
necessitate  burdensome  exactions  for  a  long  period  of  time  from 
tax-payers ;  if,  by  them,  the  growth  of  the  city,  instead  of  being 
invited  and  stimulated,  is  to  be  discouraged  and  thwarted 
in  any  direction,  then  may  the  capital  invested  in  them  be 
considered  as  at  least  temporarily  "  locked  up,"  in  the  sense  of 


16  The  Parks  and  Property  Interests 

being  non-productive  to  the  owner.  But  it  appears  to  us  that 
none  of  these  things  are  so.  The  city  has  no  parks  adequate 
to  its  common  wants ;  the  South  Side  has  no  park  at  all — not 
an  acre  set  apart  for  "  public  use  forever."  If  it  is  to  have  a 
park  at  all,  the  best  time  is  now.  If,  as  is  the  case,  we  can  get 
no  park  nearer  than  the  proposed  one,  necessity  compels  that 
we  take  that  or  accept  the  alternative  of  going  further  and 
faring  worse.  But  if  we  wait  long,  even  till  another  session  of 
the  legislature,  and  go  further,  we  shall  have  to  pay  as  much  ; 
for  unless  the  city  stops  growing  (which  not  even  the  Tribune 
predicts  or  expects),  two  years  more  will  see  it  compactly 
settled  southward,  and  east  of  State  street  to  Egan  avenue, 
and  the  entire  area  from  that  line  to  the  Rock  Island  Railroad 
Works  on  the  west  and  Hyde  Park  on  the  east,  filled  with 
suburban  groups.  Two  yeare,  we  say,  should  the  city  main- 
tain its  recent  ratio  of  increase,  will  see  this — will  see,  that  is, 
the  "Park  fronts,"  in  w^iich  the  Tribune  fears  to  see  capital 
"locked  up,"  the  site  of  hundreds  of  homes — cottage  and 
mansion.  Suppose  the  necessity  of  the  park  on  the  proposed 
location  being  by  that  time  apparent,  the  effort  then  be  made 
to  establish  it.  The  ground  will  then  cost  at  least  twice  as 
much  as  now.  But  is  there  anything  disproportionate  about 
the  proposed  park  ?  It  contains,  in  all,  about  a  thousand  acres, 
two  square  miles,  so  laid  out  as  to  have  a  direct  frontage  of  ten 
miles.  That  seems  a  good  deal ;  bux  it  is  less  than  the  fron  tage 
of  the  South  Side  avenues  east  of  State  street  and  north  of  Twenty- 
second  street.  Not  an  excessive  frontage,  surely,  for  a  city 
destined,  ere  the  close  of  the  century,  to  have  a  million  inhab- 
itants— a  residence  frontage  beginning  within  five  and  a  half 
miles  of  the  centre  of  business,  and  within  two  miles  of  the 
present  corporate  limits,  and  whose  extreme  point  is  scarcely 
two  miles  further  on — a  tract  already  reached  by  four  great 
railroads,  and  a  steam  city  railway,  and  accessible  within  five 
years  at  an  insignificant  cost  by  steam  trains  many  times  an 
hour. 


of  the  City  of  Chwago.  lY 


PUBLIO  PAEKS  TS  LARGE   CITIES. 


One  of  the  principal  needs,  in  our  American  city  and  village 
life,  is  of  public  parks  or  pleasure  grounds.  As  everybody 
knows,  and  will  acknowledge,  they  are  exceptions,  when  they 
happen  to  occur,  to  a  universal  rule.  Even  in  the  older  cities 
of  the  Atlantic  States  it  is  rare  to  find  any  part  of  the  public 
knd  set  aside  and  made  beautiful  for  the  use  and  enjoyment  of 
those  who  own  it  in  common.  The  very  word  "  common," 
applied,  in  England,  to  the  larger  or  smaller  tracts  in  the  mid- 
dle, or  on  the  outskirts,  of  villages  and  smaller  towns,  where 
every  inhabitant  is  free  to  walk  or  play,  or  to  pasture  his 
horse,  his  ass,  his  cow,  his  pigs,  or  his  geese,  is  hardly  known  in 
this  country,  although  the  early  settler  brought  here  both  the 
thing  and  the  name.  Originally,  man}'  New  England  villages 
had  their  commons,  and  in  some  of  them  the  name  is  still 
retained  in  the  popular  mouth,  although  what  is  thought  a 
more  refined  usage  attempts  to  substitute,  for  the  homelier 
style,  the  names  of  "Park"  or  "Square."  There  is  Lynn 
"  common"  and  Salem  "  common,"  and  every  American,  every 
Massachusetts  American,  at  least,  has  heard  of  Boston  Com- 
mon. In  Cambridge,  too,  the  open  ground  about  which  the 
college  buildings  stand  is  sometimes  called  the  common, 
although  that  name  belongs  more  properly  to  a  tract  in 
another  part  of  the  town ;  but  the  students  of  Yale  and  Prince- 
ton, rejoicing  in  more  delicate  classic  sensibilities,  have  not 
been  able  to  endure  the  grosser  name,  and  call  their  patches  of 
elm-shaded  turf  by  no  less  dignified  a  title  than  that  of  "  Cam- 
pus." But  it  will  not  be  denied  that  the  name  is  out  of  favor, 
and  even  the  thing  itself  has  not  been  considered  a  necessity  in 
our  social  arrangements.  As  for  the  name,  in  a  country  so 
grandiloquent  as  ours,  so  dearly  loving  sounding  titles,  it  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  it  should  disappear  and  give  place 

to  something  more   suggestive    of  grandeur.       Nor    are  we 
2 


18  The  Parks  and  Property  Interests 

disposed  to  quarrel  with  the  willingness  to  give  up  a  name 
that  carries  with  it  a  strong  flavor  of  poverty  and  social  degra- 
dation. Americans  have  a  perfectly  justifiable,  nay,  not  to 
put  it  negatively,  a  very  honorable  hatred  of  poverty.  Lilce 
every  honorable  feeling  it  may  be  pushed  to  excess  ;  but,  as  it 
exists  in  the  nation  at  large,  it  is  by  no  means  an  excess. 
Americans  prefer  to  be  independent.  They  do  not  readily 
agree  to  share  one  another's  goods.  Each  man  prefers  to  have 
his  own.  Each  man  will,  if  possible,  live  in  his  own  house, 
have  his  own  acres,  his  own  garden,  sit  under  his  own  vine 
and  apple  tree.  Yet  in  no  country  have  people  shown  more 
willingness  to  meet  in  common  or  to  travel  in  common.  Town- 
meeting,  mass-meeting,  are  American  words,  and  our  rail  cars 
and  steamboats  are  mass-meetings  in  motion.  The  name  "  com- 
mon" was  given  up,  or  fell  out  of  use,  because  its  associations 
were  not  pleasant  to  our  Americans,  and  the  reason  why  they 
were  not  originally  larger,  or  more  universally  established,  was 
simply  because  there  was,  in  early  times,  but  little  need  of 
them  here.  In  England,  it  was  necessary  that  commons 
should  be  established  or  acknowledged,  else  the  greedy 
nobles  would  have  enclosed  and  enclosed,  until  no  com- 
mons would  have  been  left.  Every  one  knows  the  stir  that 
was  made  in  Henry's  and  in  Mary's  time,  and  not  then 
for  the  first  nor  last  time  either,  about  the  enclosures  of  the 
commons;  the  literature  of  the  time  is  full  of  allusions  to  the 
unjust  encroachments  of  the  nobles;  old  Latimer,  in  his  ser- 
mons, urges  the  nobles  most  feelingly  not  to  take  away  the 
commons  from  their  people.  But  they  could  not  be  kept  from 
nibbling  at  the  edges  of  these  tempting  acres,  and,  in  many 
cases,  two  or  three  noblemen  nibbling  away  at  opposite  points, 
the  whole  tract  disappeared.  Here,  however,  there  were  no 
nobles,  and  the  land  was  free  for  each  settler  to  take  what  he 
could  use.  In  the  Eastern  States,  we  believe,  too,  the  land 
was  seldom  divided  into  large  grants,  as  was  done  in  New 
York  and  the  Middle  States ;  there  were  fewer  patents,  and 
what  there  were,  were  smaller  than  those  which  for  many  years 
did  so  much  to  stay  progress  in  New  York  and  in  Virginia.  In 
New  England,  then,  as  everybody  could  have  what  land  he 
wanted,  "  commons"  were  not  needed.     In  the  other  States,  the 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  19 

people  were  not  so  well  off  as  in  New  England,  or  even  as  in 
Old  England,  in  this  matter.  The  land  in  the  new  planta- 
tions being  all  divided  among  great  proprietors,  no  provision  was 
made  for  the  people.  In  England,  the  commons  were  older 
than  the  nobles,  or,  at  least,  as  old,  and  the  people  had  not  to 
ask  for  the  right  of  establishing  them.  And  there  was  another 
reason  why  it  would  have  been  unreasonable  to  expect  that 
the  early  settlers  should  establish  commons.  We  have  said 
that  they  did  not  need  them.  Neither  did  they  desire  them, 
for  any  purposes  of  mere  recreation  or  to  enjoy  whatever  beauty 
might  be  in  them.  Their  villages  were  planted  on  the  edge  of 
a  vast  wilderness.  "  The  hoary  ocean  ridges,  roaring  into 
cataracts  "  were  in  front  of  them  ;  the  silent  ocean  of  the  bound- 
less forest  was  behind  them.  They  dreaded  the  one  almost  as 
much  as  they  did  the  other.  If  the  sea  was  a  terror  to  them,  so 
was  the  wood.  It  was  the  home  of  the  Indian  who  massacred 
their  people,  burned  their  houses  and  carried  their  women  and 
children  into  captivity,  and  it  sheltered  the  wild -cat  and  the 
bear,  less  cruel  than  the  Indian,  but,  still,  a  haunting  terror  by 
night  and  by  day.  The  love  of  external  nature,  a  modern 
growth  at  most,  and  never  very  strong  in  the  English  breast, 
could  not  be  expected  to  grow  very  vigorously  in  the  hearts  of 
men  for  whom  the  landscape  that  surrounded  them  was  full  of 
danger  and  death.  It  was  not  because  these  people  were  aus- 
tere that  they  did  not  care  for  the  nature  that  lay  about  them. 
It  was  because  their  minds  were  filled  with  cares  and  anxieties 
and  dread,  things  hostile  to  enjoyment.  The  Southern  people 
are  fond  of  tracing  their  origin  to  the  cavaliers,  the  political  ene- 
mies and  the  temperential  antipodes  of  the  puritans,  but  the  set- 
tlers in  the  South,  however  light-hearted  they  may  have  been, 
showed,  on  this  side  the  water,  no  more  love  of  natural  scenery 
than  their  soberer  brethren  of  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut. 
The  woods  and  the  waters  had  no  more  charm  for  the  rollick- 
ing spendthrift  crew,  than  they  had  for  the  grave  men  of 
the  East  The  Indian,  the  bear,  and  the  wild -cat,  were  as 
fearful  to  the  men  of  Smith  as  they  were  to  the  men  of 
Winthrop,  and  no  "  Forest  Hymn  "  has  came  down  to  us  from 
a  poet  of  either  side.  They  cultivated  the  social  life  of  hearth 
and  home,  and  praised  the  virtues  of  safety.     They  repeated 


20  The  Parks  and  Property  Interests 

the  old  experience,  that  the  beauty  of  nature  does  not  reveal 
itself  to  those  who  are  struggling  with  her,  but,  only,  after  the 
victory,  to  the  victors.  The  same  thing  is  seen  to  be  true,  to- 
day, in  the  newly  settled  parts  of  the  West.  The  pioneer  hates 
"trees  and  Injuns."  He  laughs  at  the  folly  of  the  landscape- 
painter.  "  Why  spend  your  time  in  painting  these  rocks  and 
trees  ?  I  hate  the  sight  of  'em.  They  are  in  man's  way.  We 
are  cutting  'em  down  and  grubbing  'em  up,  and  blasting  'em 
off  the  face  of  the  earth,  as  fast  as  ever  we  can." 

There  are  many  reasons  why  we  wish  that  things  had  been 
otherwise.  It  has  resulted,  from  this  early  indifference  or 
antipathy,  that  very  few  of  our  towns  and  villages,  whether  in 
the  earlier  or  the  later  settled  parts  of  the  country,  have  kept 
any  portion  of  their  site  free  from  buildings,  and  devoted  to 
recreation.  In  some  cases,  as  in  the  New  England  towns  we 
have  mentioned,  the  English  "  commons  "  was  early  established, 
and  continued  for  a  long  time  to  serve  a  similar  purpose  to  that 
of  its  prototype,  although  there  could  never  have  been  the 
same  reason  for  its  existence,  here,  that  there  was,  there.  We 
suppose  that  when  a  "  common  "  was  set  apart  in  an  American 
settlement,  it  must  have  been,  either,  from  a  desire  to  repeat 
here  what  they  had  been  accustomed  to  see  at  home, — just  as 
they  named  their  new  villages  after  those  they  had  left  behind 
them ;  or  else,  because  it  was  found  to  be  convenient,  at  first, 
to  have  a  piece  of  ground  in  common,  and  surrounded  by  their 
houses,  as  making  it  easier  to  overlook  and  guard  their  posses- 
sions from  attack.  In  the  case  of  the  colleges,  as  the  buildings 
themselves  were  copied  in  their  plans  from  those  of  the  English 
Universities — though  nothing  could  be  more  bald  and  starved 
than  their  exteriors — so  they  were,  no  doubt  placed  about  open 
squares  with  grass  and  trees,  to  recall  somewhat  of  the  rural 
beauty  in  which  the  Colleges  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  have 
their  enchanting  seats.  In  one  instance,  and  it  is  the  only  one 
that  occurs  to  us,  at  present,  an  early  settlement  owed  to  its  for- 
tifications a  pleasant  public  green.  We  allude  to  the  well- 
known  Battery,  of  New  York,  still  retaining  some  vestiges  of  its 
old  beauty,  although  every  year  makes  it  less  and  less  possible 
to  imagine  what  it  must  have  been  even  fifty  years  ago  when  it 
was  the  resort  of  all  the  fashion,  youth  and  beauty  of  the  town, 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  21 

which  came  there  to  enjoy,  under  the  overarching  trees,  the 
breezes  of  the  harbor  and  the  gay  spectacle  of  the  coming  and 
going  ships.  But,  with  the  exception  we  have  named  it 
certainly  is  the  rule  that  our  American  cities,  towns,  and  vil- 
lages, are  not  supplied,  as  they  should  be,  with  places  for 
the  recreation  of  the  public  in  the  open  air.  Of  course,  it  some- 
times happens  that  a  village,  or,  even,  a  large  town,  may  be  so 
situated  that  the  walks  about  it  afford  all  the  recreation  of  this 
sort  that  is  needed,  but  this  is  not  often  the  case.  Nearly  all 
the  villages  on  Massachusetts  Bay  have  fine  sea-beaches  either 
at  their  very  doors,  or  close  at  hand.  Sometimes,  there  are  fine 
woods,  near  by,  where  people  can  go  in  parties  and  easily  enjoy 
a  pleasant  holiday.  It  may  be,  that  a  fine  pond,  or  a  smooth- 
flowing  river,  holds  out  its  invitation  through  the  summer  heat 
to  those  who  love  angling  or  boating,  or  spreads  a  crystal  floor, 
in  winter,  for  the  skaters ;  it  will  go  hard  if  youth  and  the  light 
of  heart  do  not,  somehow,  find  a  way  to  extract  sunbeams  from 
cucumbers.  But,  at  the  best,  the  process  is  difficult,  and  is 
offcener  abandoned  than  persevered  in.  From  the  want  of 
proper  facilities,  walking,  horse-back-riding,  and  all  open  air 
sports,  are  nearly  abandoned  by  the  inhabitants  of  our  cities  and 
larger  towns. 

Why  is  it  that  Americans  are  so  little  inclined,  as  a  people, 
to  exercise  in  the  open  air — and  the  proposition  can  hardly  be 
denied — has  never,  we  think,  been  satisfactorily  explained. 
The  reason  may,  perhaps,  lie  in  the  climate,  which  certainly  is 
a  very  trying  one,  but,  then,  it  is  not,  on  the  whole,  a  more  disa- 
greeable climate  than  the  English,  and  the  English  people  almost 
make  open-air  exercise  a  religious  duty.  Persons  in  good  health 
in  England  do  not  permit  an  ordinary  rain  to  keep  them  in 
doors.  One  of  the  pleasantest  days  we  remember,  was  spent  in 
walking  about  the  fields,  and  over  the  heath,  near  the  old  town 

of  C ,  in  England,  in  a  steady  rain,  in  company  with  a  bright 

little  English  lady  and  two  manly  boys,  the  whole  party  armed, 
of  course,  with  umbrellas.  But,  then,  just  the  sort  of  walk  we 
took  would  not  be  easily  possible  in  America,  on  any  day,  foul 
or  fair.  For,  with  us,  there  are  only  the  roads  to  walk  in,  ten 
chances  to  one  that  there  are  no  sidewalks,  and  not  only  are 
there  no  public  parks,  but  all  trespass,  that  is,  walking  upon 


22  Tlie  Parhs  and  Property  Inter eds 

private  grounds,  is,  as  a  rule,  forbidden.  But,  in  these  mat- 
ters, there  is  a  good  deal  more  freedom  in  England  than  there 
is  here.  First,  there  are  the  ''  commons,"  "  heaths,"  and 
"  downs,"  and  "moors;"  many  of  these  are. extensive,  and  are 
fine  places  for  exercise.  Then,  great  freedom  is  allowed  in 
nearly  all  the  noblemen's  parks,  that  is,  to  pedestrians,  and 
many  of  them  are  crossed  by  foot-paths,  in  which  the  public 
has,  from  time  immemorial,  maintained  an  undisputed  right  of 
way.  And,  again,  many  fields  owned  by  private  persons  are 
crossed,  or  bordered  on  one  or  two  sides  by  foot-paths,  which 
are  not  shut  up  even  when  the  field  is  planted  with  grain.  In 
walking  from  Stratford-on-Avon  to  Shottery,  to  see  Anne 
Hathaway's  cottage,  our  walk  la}'-  for  a  considerable  distance 
along  a  grain  field,  a  wire  fence  on  either  hand  indicating,  at 
once,  the  .owner's  right  and  ours.  The  gist  of  all  which  is,  that 
walking  in  England  is  made  easy.  Even  people  not  very 
strong  may  walk  considerable  distances,  being  pretty  sure  to 
find  some  rude  but  sufficient  resting  place.     In  one  day  at 

C ,  we  remember  that  in  a  path  that  ran  along  one  side  of  a 

wheat  field,  and  under  a  bowering  hedge-row,  we  came  upon  a 
comfortable  seat  of  rustic  work  so  placed  that  under  this  shade 
one  might  enjoy  a  distant  prospect  of  some  pretty  hills.  Where 
such  facilities  as  these  abound,  and  they  are  in  plenty  all  over 
England,  it  is  natural  enough  that  people  should  make  use  of 
them.  Of  course  a  great  many  of  these  conveniences  and 
privileges  are  the  result  of  the  thousand  and  one  causes  that 
have  been  in  operation  to  make  the  England  of  to  day.  Eng- 
lish civilization,  which,  God  forbid  that  we  should  ever  see 
transferred  to  this  country*,  is  a  curious  mixture  of  very  bad  and 
very  good,  and,  such  as  it  is,  it  is  the  product  of  eighteen  cen- 
turies of  crystallization.  AVe  have  just  begun  to  crystallize. 
Our  individual  national  life  is  not  yet  an  hundred  years  old. 
We  are  just  beginning  to  set  things  to  rights. 

Now,  contrast  with  English  facilities  for  the  enjoyment  of 
the  open  air  and  whatever  natural  beauty  may  be  to  be  found, 
the  condition  of  the  towns  on  the  Hudson  river.  We  take  an 
illustration  from  a  region  familiar  to  us,  and  which,  beside,  is 
one  that  best  serves  our  immediate  purpose.  It  is  a  region  that 
God  did  everything  to  make  perfect,  and  which  man,'  whether 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  23 

deliberately  or  through  ignorant  carelessness,  has  done  all  he 
could  to  mar.  In  the  first  place,  not  a  single  town  on  the 
Hudson  river  is  laid  out,  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  term.  This 
perhaps  is  nothing  singular,  for  they  are  many  of  them  old 
towns  and  have  grown  up  from  chance  beginnings  and  have 
been  directed  in  their  growth  by  accidents.  But  it  may  rea- 
sonably be  hoped  that  in  the  planting  of  the  new  settlements 
that  are  yet  to  find  homes  on  the  banks  of  this  noble  stream,  it 
may  sometimes  be  thought  worth  while  by  capitalists  to  take  at 
least  as  much  pains  with  the  plan  of  a  village  as  with  the  plan 
of  a  house,  to  consult  somebody  beside  the  surveyor,  and  to 
treat  the  souls  of  the  future  inhabitants  with  a  little  considera- 
tion. It  might  be  well,  for  instance,  to  ask  what  is  the  use  of 
having  a  river  like  the  Hudson  running  past  your  town,  if  the 
town  is  so  laid  out  that  the  river  can  only  be  seen  by  glimpses, 
and  that  the  actual  river  banks  can  never  be  enjoyed  by  any 
one,  rich  or  poor !  For,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river,  this 
is,  literally,  the  case.  The  Hudson  Eiver  Eailroad  is  an  institu- 
tion of  which  it  is  difficult  for  any  cultivated  man  who  lives  on 
its  route  and  suffers  by  it  to  speak  with  becoming  patience.  It 
is  of  no  benefit  to  anybody,  unless  it  be  to  its  stockholders, 
and  for  a  good  many  years  it  was  of  no  benefit  whatever  to 
them ;  it  accommodates  no  traffic  that  might  not  be  better 
served  by  a  road  a  half  mile  further  back  ;  it  is  one  of  the  most 
noisy  and  dusty  roads  in  the  country  ;  only  those  who  sit  on 
one  side  of  the  cars  can  see  the  river,  the  rest  stare  at  the  bank 
within  a  few  feet,  sometimes  within  a  few  inches,  of  their  noses  ; 
and  what  is  its  crime  of  crimes,  it  has  utterly  destroyed  all 
enjoyment  of  its  beautiful  banks  by  ftiose  who  live  along  them, 
by  cutting  off  all  access  to  the  Avater  except  by  crossing  the 
traclc.  Now,  place  a  town  upon  this  river,  and  ask  what  are  its 
ideal  requirements  to  make  it  a  place  for  educated,  cultivated 
human  beings  to  think  it  worth  their  while  to  settle  there.  Of 
course,  if  any  such  society  had  had  an  opportunity  to  exert  an 
influence  in  the  beginning,  the  railroad  would  never  have  been 
built  in  that  place.  We  believe  there  is  but  one  opinion  on 
this  subject  at  present  among  intelligent  men.  If  the  road 
were  not  there  to-day,  it  could  not  possibly  be  built  there. 
There  has  been  a  great  growth  in  the  public  appreciation  of 


24  The  ParJcs  and  Property  Interests 

beautiful  scenery  since  this  road  was  projected.  Such  a  piece 
of  vandalism  could  not  be  perpetrated  to-day  even  by  the  same 
class  of  men  who  originally  set  it  on  foot.  But  the  road  is  a  fact, 
and  now  we  ask,  what  course  is  the  best  to  pursue  in  laying  out 
a  town  upon  the  river  banks  still  beautiful  in  spite  of  the  rail- 
road ?  Ought  not  the  very  first  thing  thought  of  to  be  the 
common  good,  the  laying  out  the  plan  in  such  a  way  that  the 
drives  shall  command  the  scenery,  and  the  securing  for  public 
use — the  use  of  all,  rich  and  poor  alike — of  an  ample  tract — 
no  stingy  "  green"  or  *' square,"  but  a  park,  where,  for  all  time, 
the  people  may,  as  in  Caesar's  great  bequest,  if  Antony  were  to 
be  believed,  "walk  abroad  and  recreate  themselves"?  Of. 
course,  there  is  nothing  quixotic  in  such  a  supposition.  Single 
speculators  have  laid  out  villages  so,  and  found  their  profit 
in  it ;  't  is  the  merest  common  sense,  and  we  have  no  doubt 
that  within  the  next  fifty  years  we  shall  hear  of  many  villages, 
of  many  towns  and  cities,  even,  that  will  have  been  laid  out 
with  care,  and  taste,  and  forethought,  by  intelligent  business 
men. 

And  yet.  of  all  the  towns  strewed  along  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson  river  there  is  no  one,  whether  it  be  old  or  new,  where 
any  thought  has  been  given  to  these  things.  There  are  a  few 
of  them,  like  Fishkill  Landing  and  Poughkeepsie,  situated,  for- 
tunately, upon  broad  level  plateaus  and  stragglingly  settled  in 
the  beginning,  so  that  the  winding  roads  command  necessarily 
varied,  and,  in  the  case  of  Fishkill — for  the  scenery  about  the 
other  and  larger  town  is  very  tame — remarkably  beautiful 
views.  But  in  neither  case  has  any  provision  been  made  for  the 
continued  enjoyment  of  this  scenery  by  future  generations. 
The  plateau  on  which  Poughkeepsie  stands  is  already  crowded ; 
with  the  building  of  the  new  railroads  that  are  to  center  in 
Fishkill  Landing,  that  beautiful  meadow-platform  once  so  rural 
must  soon  be  transformed,  and  for  the  dwellers  in  the  great 
town  of  smithies  and  factories  that  is  to  grow  up  there,  nothing 
will  be  left  of  nature  but  such  glimpses  of  the  mountains  and 
the  river  as  the  houses  cannot  quite  shut  out.  Even  in  the 
cases  then  of  these  towns  where  there  was  every  natural  advan- 
tage, nothing  worthy  has  been  done  ;  if  ever  anything  was  pro- 
posed, a  short-sighted  economy  has  nipped  the  notion  in  the 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  25 

bad ;  and  here,  as  in  many  other  ventures,  men  have  shown 
themselves  penny-wise  and  pound-foolish.  Eight  years  we 
lived  in  Newburgh,  (a  large  town  then,  a  much  larger  town,  a 
city,  in  the  present  year  of  grace),  and  well  do  we  remember 
what  a  perpetual  grievance  it  was  that  we  had  to  walk  a  long 
distance  either  north  or  south  before  we  got  any  good  of  the 
nobly  beautiful  scenery  naturally  commanded  by  that  most 
stupidly  laid-out  town.  Who  can  doubt  that  if,  when  the  settle- 
ment was  first  proposed  in  that  spot^  if,  indeed,  it  was 
ever  "proposed"  at  all — for  it  is  absolutely  without  natu- 
ral advantages — there  had  been  an  open  parallelogram  of 
a  hundred  acres  laid  out  on  the  plateau  edge  and  turning 
it,  so  that  no  after  building  could  obstruct  the  view  of  the  river, 
and  this  devoted  forever  to  the  service  of  a  public  pleasure- 
ground  ; — who  can  doubt  that  this  provision  would  have  had 
the  happiest  effect  upon  the  material  and  social  fortunes  of  the 
place  ?  The  shrewdest  Beveridge^  or  Powell,  or  Monell,  that 
speculated  in  that  enterprise  might  have  showed  his  money- 
making  mates  a  shrewder  trick  than  any  they  had  the  wit  to 
devise,  by  making  this  liberal  grant.  But  it  was  not  done ;  and 
Newburgh,  as  royally  placed  by  nature  as  the  Edinburgh  of  her 
Scotch  founders,  is  a  melancholy  example  of  how  easily  and  how 
irretrievably  men  can  throw  away  golden  opportunities. 

One  would  think  that  in  a  democracy  as  pure  in  theory  as 
ours,  the  people  would  have  larger  and  more  abundant  privi- 
leges than  they  have  under  aristocratic  government,  and  in 
time,  no  doubt,  they  will.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that, 
up  to  this  time,  our  government  has  been  a  democracy  only  in 
theory,  Now  it  is  becoming  really  a*government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  and  for  the  people.  And  we  are  to  see  very 
different  things  in  the  future  from  what  we  have  seen  in  the 
past.  At  present,  the  opportunities  for  intellectual  education 
enjoyed  by  the  mass  of  the  people  of  our  country  are  far  lower 
than  those  enjoyed  by  the  people  in  England,  in  France  and  in 
Germany.  Our  people  have,  thus  far,  been  very  backward  in 
establishing  museums,  galleries  of  art,  zoological  gardens,  libra- 
ries. In  no  city  in  our  Union  is  there  one  of  these  institutions 
that  is  more  than  merely  respectable,  and  yet  no  city  can  be  a 
great  city,  a  center,  without  them.     The  finest  public  library  in 


2t)  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests 

America  is,  we  suppose  beyond  all  dispute,  that  of  the  city  of 
Boston.  In  time  it  will,  no  doubt,  be  really  a  fine  library,  but 
at  present,  is  only  the  promise  of  one.  The  Astor  Library  of 
New  York  is  only  a  third-rate  collection,  and  is  managed,  like 
everything  of  the  sort  in  New  York,  in  the  most  niggardly 
spirit.  Everything  that  relates  to  public  education  in  New 
York  leads  a  starved  and  precarious  existence.  And,  yet,  no  one 
of  our  so-called  great  cities  has  any  right  to  cast  a  stone  at  her. 
The  interests  of  public  education  languish  in  all  of  them.  And 
much  ought  to  be  forgiven  her  for  the  example  she  has  set  in 
the  creation  and  maintenance  of  the  first  great  public  park 
established  in  the  United  States.  To  have  done  that,  and  to 
have  done  it  so  completely,  and  so  beyond  all  cavil,  well,  as  she 
has,  makes  us  willing  to  believe  that,  in  the  future,  she  will 
do  other  things  as  noble  and  as  well.  She  has  many  things  to 
contend  against.  She  has  a  population  more  mixed,  more  alien 
in  sentiment  to  American  ideas,  more  floating  and  unsettled, 
than  any  other  of  our  cities.  Then,  she  has  the  most  degraded 
set  of  public  officers  to  be  found  in  the  world,  and,  finally,  her 
social  standard  being,  simply  and  purely,  a  money  standard,  it 
is  next  to  impossible  to  excite  any  interest  whatever  among  her 
"  upper  class "  in  any  thing  that  relates  to  education.  The 
libraries  and  museums  must  wait,  in  New  York ;  their  time  is 
not  yet  come;  meanwhile  the  Park  is  rapidly  making  them 
possible. 

And  the  Park  is  making  these  things  possible,  not  only  for 
New  York,  but  for  the  whole  country.  We  consider  that  in  a 
democracy  like  ours  the  first  thing  necessary  in  matters  of  edu- 
cation is,  to  put  the  whole»people  upon  an  equality  of  opportu- 
nity. Give  the  people  the  best  of  everything ;  don't  stint  them  ; 
don't  try  to  put  them  off  with  trash ;  don't  say  the  faithless 
words — "  The  people  can't  appreciate  the  best ;"  remember  that 
every  thing  greatest  in  this  world  that  has  been  done  in  litera- 
ture and  art  has  been  done  for  the  people,  and  that  immortality 
of  fame  has  come  from  them,  and  not  from  any  clique  or  coteria 
Of  course,  in  this  country,  where  the  people  are,  theoretically, 
the  source  of  power,  it  is  not  to  express  ourselves  correctly,  to 
speak  of  this  or  that  advantage  being  given  to  the  people,  for 
the  people  are  supposed  to  appropriate  their  own  money  for 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  21 


their  own  needs,  but  in  practice  this  is  not  the  way  it  works, 
for  wealth  and  education,  combined  in  varying  proportions,  get 
the  control  of  public  -affairs,  and  the  people  are  not  alwaj^s  able 
to  get  what  would  really  be  good  for  them.  They  have  to  be 
taught  what  they  need.  And  there  must  be  a  beginning  made. 
And  in  our  belief  the  very  healthiest  way  to  make  this  begin- 
ning is  by  means  of  a  great  public  Park.  There  are  many 
persons  who  tliink  that  the  greatest  mission  the  Park  has  to 
fulfill  is  to  develop  the  value  of  the  real  estate  on  the  island. 
We  suppose  that  it  is  the  fact,  patent  to  everybody,  that  the 
Park  has  done  this  to  an  extraordinary  degree  that  has  made 
the  people  of  New  York  so  unanimous  in  their  approval  of  the 
large  expenditure  that  has  been  made  to  bring  the  Park  to  its 
present  perfection.  It  is  so  rare  to  hear  any  complaijUt  of  the 
management  of  the  commissioners  on  the  score  of  their  too  great 
liberality  at  least,  that  it  may  fairly  be  said  there  is  never  any 
complaint  at  all.  The  truth  is  that  the  Park  is  thoroughly  satis- 
factory to  the  public,  it  gives  them  the  best  roads  in  the  world, 
to  drive  on  and  walk  on,  ponds  for  rowing  and  skating,  music 
from  an  admirable  band,  and  play-grounds  for  the  children,  and 
the  tax  is  so  distributed  that  they  do  not  feel  its  weight.  Then, 
there  is  another  point.  The  park  flatters  us,  and  we  all  like  to 
be  flattered.  Whatever  is  done  here,  is  done  so  far  as  is  possi- 
ble with  the  means  at  our  command,  as  perfectly  as  it  would  be 
done  in  Europe  for  kings  or  queens.  Victoria  at  Windsor  or 
at  Osborne,  Napoleon  in  Paris,  does  not  drive  over  better  roads 
than  the  New  Yorker  in  his  Park.  And  the  French  sculptor 
working  over  the  carved  decorations  on  the  New  Opera  House 
or  the  Flora  Pavilion  of  the  Tuilleries  does  not  work  for  a  more 
exacting  master  in  the  person  of  his  head-architect,  than  the 
sculptor  on  the  stone-work  of  the  Terrace  in  the  Central  Park, 
when  Wrey  Mould  sets  him  his  design.  In  truth,  the  Central 
Park  represents  the  highest  point  that  the  Arts  of  Decorative 
Design  have  reached  in  this  country,  and  no  private  person  is 
able  to  command  better  work  than  is  done  in  the  Park  for  the 
use  and  delight  of  the  mass  of  the  people.  Our  Park  has  had 
the  advantage  of  being  governed  by  a  commission  of  great 
sagacity  and  uprightness,  the  gentlemen  composing  it  have  the 
confidence  of  the  whole  community.     And,  as  is  well  known, 


28  TJie  Parks  and  Property  Interests 

that  commission  has  had  the  services  of  very  able  men  as  archi- 
tects and  landscape-gardeners-in-chief;  men  who  have  been 
deeply  interested  in  the  education  of  the  people,  and  who  have 
kept  that  point  steadily  in  view  from  the  first.  The  result  has 
been  that  the  people  have  gladly  put  their  own  shoulders  to  the 
wheel,  and  have  backed  the  commission  in  every  thing  they  have 
done.  While  all  this  is  true,  it  is  no  less  true  that,  unless  it 
had  been  seen  that  the  Park  was  a  great  agent  in  increasing  the 
value  of  property  on'  the  island,  there  would  probably  have 
been  a  less  cordial  feeling  toward  it,  on  the  part  of  the  public. 
The  one  sufficient  reason  why  nothing  has  been  done  here  to 
establish  museums,  libraries,  galleries  of  art — those  absolute 
essentials  of  a  great  city — is  that  it  has  been  impossible  to  con- 
vince the  men  who  had  the  money  in  their  pockets  that  they 
would  pay,  that  is,  that  they  would  raise  the  value  of 
property.  It  was  easier  to  convince  them  that  the  Park 
would  do  this,  and  after  some  skirmishing,  although  there 
was  wonderfully  little  opposition,  it  was  established.  It 
had  hardly  been  staked  out  before  the  hoped-for  rise  in 
the  value  of  the  surrounding  lots  began,  and  to-day  that  rise 
has  reached  a  point  beyond  the  wildest  expectations.  And,  of 
course,  this  rise  has  not  affected  the  immediately  surrounding 
lots  alone.  The  whole  upper  half  of  the  island  has  felt  the  im- 
pulse, and  the  highest  point  has  not  been  reached  yet.  Indeed, 
so  great  is  the  excitement  in  the  real  estate  market  in  conse- 
quence of  the  success  of  the  Park  proper  as  a  financial  experi- 
ment, that  a  system  of  extensions  has  been  devised  known  as 
the  Boulevards — would  that  we  could  have  our  own  names  for 
our  own  things ! — magnificent  roads  with  quadruple  rows  of 
trees,  the  roads  themselves  as  well  made  as  the  roads  in  the 
Park,  and  leading  out  far  into  the  adjacent  country.  Nor  is 
this  all,  the  whole  north-western  part  of  the  Island  is  to  be  pre- 
served from  the  fate  of  rectangularity  that  has  befallen  the  cen- 
tral part,  by  being  laid  out  in  a  freer  manner  with  winding  roads, 
and  in  addition  two  smaller  "  Morning- side  Parks,"  as  they  are 
called,  are  to  be  laid  out  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  ridge  that 
runs  along  the  north-western  edge  of  New  York  island.  These 
improvements  which  are  by  no  means  Utopian,  but  the  practi- 
cal plans  of  practical  men  and  already  on  the  way  to  comple- 


of  the  OiPy  of  Chicago.  29 

tion,  have  made  many  people  richer  who  were  already  rich 
enough,  and  many  more  rich  who  had  never  looked  to  be  any- 
thing but  poor.  And  the  rise  in  value,  while  it  is  enormous,  is, 
yet,  so  evidently  reasonable,  that  there  is  no  danger  of  the 
public  going  crazy  over  it.  Up-town  lots  are  not  Dutch  tulips, 
neither  are  they  slips  of  morus  muliicaulis.  They  fairly  repre- 
sent an  increase  of  comfortable  living,  an  advance  in  civilization, 
»a  city-life  nearer  the  ideal  than  New  Yorkers  had  hoped  to  see, 
in  this  generation,  and  we  confidently  believe  that  they  are  the 
pledge,  in  a  mercantile,  and  not  in  a  poetic,  sense,  of  the  speedy 
establishment  of  these  institutions  of  which  we  have  already 
spoken,  without  which  no  city  can  claim  to  be  a  metropolis  of 
the  world.  The  Park  has  educated  the  people  of  New  York 
up  to  a  point  which  they  would  not  have  reached  in  twenty 
years  without  it,  and  there  is  no  great  city  in  our  Union  where 
the  same  result  would  not  follow  the  establishment  of  a  similar 
pleasure-ground.  Of  course  it  must  be  remembered  that  our 
Park  would  never  have  been  what  it  is  if  it  had  not  been  gov- 
erned as  it  has.  It  is  not  a  harum  scarum,  spendthrift  affair. 
It  is  managed  with  an  admirable  union  of  thrift  and  liberality, 
and  all  the  best  intelligence  of  our  community  has  been  called 
into  its  service.  It  is  essentially  the  people's  Park,  and  they 
give  the  men  they  have  entrusted  with  its  management  all  the 
support  and  encouragement  that  they  need.  Other  cities  are 
preparing  to  follow  our  example,  Brooklyn  with  her  magnificent 
Prospect  Park  is  trying  her  best  to  eclipse  us.  San  Francisco 
is  getting  ready.  Chicago,  too,  is  waking  up,  and,  as  if  land  and 
all  values  had  not  made  a  sufficiently  astonishing  advance 
there,  her  citizens  are  determined  to  try  what  a  great  Park  can 
do  to  give  their  wealth  another  impulse.  The  Parks  first,  and 
the  Museums  and  Libraries  will  follow  in  due  time. 


30  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests 


THE    SOUTH    PAEK. 


The  business  and  population  of  Chicago  are  slowl}^,  but 
surely,  tending  southward.  Every  month  the  changes  going  oA 
in  the  First  Ward  indicate  this.  Large  church  edifices,  which, 
when  first  constructed,  were  believed  to  have  been  located  far 
enough  away  from  the  noise  of  commercial  activity  to  remain 
until  the  fingers  of  time  should  cover  them  with  evidences  of 
age,  or  crumble  them  to  earth,  have  yielded  to  the  inexorable 
demands  of  commerce.  Thus,  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
has  gone  from  Washington  to  Congress  street ;  the  First  Baptist 
from  Washington  street  to  Hubbard  court,  nearly  three-quarters 
of  a  mile  farther  south ;  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church 
Society,  on  the  corner  of  Washington  street  and  Wabash  av- 
enue, have  resolved  to  build  a  new  church  next  year.  But  a 
surer  evidence  of  the  advance  of  commercial  activity  southward 
is  the  fact  that  from  La  Salle  street  to  Lake  Michigan  the  resi- 
dences are  transformed  into  stores  at  the  rate  of  about  one  block 
per  year,  and  the  old  settlers  who  once  supposed  themselves 
comfortably  located  in  the  suburbs,  are  constantly  selling  out 
to  business  men,  and,  with  the  thousands  of  dollars  thus  secured, 
are  purchasing  lots  farther  south,  and  erecting  thereon  new 
and  much  more  commodious  houses. 

To  the  inhabitants  of  Wabash  and  Michigan  avenues,  who, 
not  long  ago,  believed  that  those  thoroughfares  were  to  be  for- 
ever dedicated  to  the  uses  of  domestic  and  home  life,  this 
encroaching  advance  of  commerce,  with  its  obliteration  of  old 
scenes,  is  regarded  with  anything  but  feelings  of  pleasure. 

Since  the  Lake  Park  bill  has  passed  the  legislature,  an  in- 
creased impetus  must  be  given  to  this  movement  southward. 
The  lake  front  will  shortly  be  converted  into  docks  to  accom- 
modate the  business  of  our  vast  inland  coasting  trade,  and  to 
afford  facilities  for  the  transaction  of  the  future  direct  trade 
with  Europe.  Business  men  are  now  making  a  move  to  secure 
such  trade.     Mr.  Chesbrough,  City  Engineer  of  Chicago, — and 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  31 

no  better  authority  could  be  given, — says  that  a  small  addi- 
tional outlay  would  secure  depth  of  water  enough  over  the  St. 
Clair  flats  for  ocean  vessels  of  1,000  tons  ;  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  St.  Lawrence  is  now  in  progress.  An  American 
ship  canal  around  Niagara  Falls,  and  still  another  artificial  out- 
let from  Georgian  Bay  to  Lake  Ontario,  will  certainly  be  made 
within  the  next  ten  years.  The  completion  of  the  Pacific  Rail- 
road during  the  present  season  will  give  definite  shape  and  im- 
pulse to  these  schemes  for  the  extension  of  our  inland  and  for- 
eign commerce,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  next  session 
of  Congress  will  provide  the  necessary  legislation  for  inaugur- 
ating these  grand  improvements.  Ten,  or  at  most  fifteen,  years 
hence,  will,  with  hardly  a  doubt,  see  the  entire  lake  front,  from 
Randolph  street  to  Park  place,  transformed  into  vast  docks, 
whereat  shall  be  displayed  to  the  breezes  the  gay  colors  of  the 
flags  of  all  commercial  nations  of  the  globe.  Then  Michigan 
avenue  will  be  devoted  to  bonded  warehouses,  and  State  street, 
from  Twelfth  to  Twenty-second  street,  will  exhibit  evidences  of 
a  first-class  retail  business. 

COMMUNICATIONS. 

Of  course,  while  this  transformation  is  going  on,  the  resi- 
dences of  the  people  must  be  pushed  farther  and  farther  towards 
and  beyond  the  suburbs ;  and  the  tendency  is  to  enlarge  the 
city  in  all  directions ;  and  since  the  grand  desideratum  with 
those  who  live  in  the  suburbs,  is  convenient,  cheap  and  rapid 
transportation,  that  division  or  side  of  the  city  which  is  best 
furnished  with  these  facilities  will  expand  with  the  greatest 
rapidity.  Thousands  of  laborers  in  the  Sixth,  Seventh  and 
Eighth  wards,  who  are  employed  in  the  commercial  centre  of  the 
city,  now  take  the  street  cars  to  i-each  their  places  of  business. 
It  may  safely  be  said  that  without  these  means  of  transit  they 
could  not  live  so  far  from  their  work.  These  men  spend  from 
twenty  to  thirty  minutes  in  going  to,  or  returning  from, 
their  work.  If,  by  means  of  steam,  these  men  could  live  six 
or  ten  miles  from  the  Court  House,  -and  spend  no  more  time 
and  no  more  monc}^  in  reaching  their  places  of  business,  what 
is  to  hinder  them  from  exchanging  their  present  closely-hud- 
dled houses  for  commodious  lots  and  neat  but  cheap  houses  in 
the  suburbs  ? 


82  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests 

In  truth  the  tendency  of  cities  to  spread  over  a  wide  surface 
dates  from  the  introduction  of  railroads.  So  long  as  the  means 
of  transit  were  slow  and  uncertain,  the  laboring  man  must  live 
near  his  work,  even  at  the  inconvenience  of  being  compelled  to 
be  packed  with  many  other  families  into  five  and  six-story  ten- 
ement houses.  Chicago  is  already  famous  for,  its  lack  of  this 
class  of  houses,  and  is  noted,  even  in  European  capitals,  for  its 
peculiarly  neat  and  comfortable  cottages.  This  architectural 
feature  of  the  city  is  so  conspicuous  that  almost  every  Eastern 
man  notices  it  at  once,  and  regards  it  at  first  as  a  defect ;  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  good  sanitary  condition  of  the  city 
as  compared  with  other  cities,  is  largely  owing  to  this  tendency 
to  isolation,  and  this  tendency  to  live  in  the  suburbs  is  due  to 
unusual  facilities  of  steam  transportation. 

Apart  from  the  present  cheapness  of  the  land,  an  important 
reason  for  approving  the  present  location  of  the  park  may  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  there  are  five  independent  lines  of  rail- 
road that  pass  within  a  very  short  distance  of  its  limits,  or 
through  it,  and  that  on  any  of  these  roads  the  park  can  be 
reached  within  from  twenty  to  thirty  minutes.  While  this  is 
the  case,  it  is  folly  to  say  that  they  are  not  within  the  reach  of  the 
poor.  The  Illinois  Central  and  Michigan  Central  Eailroads  pass 
through  the  eastern  portion  of  the  park,  and  the  Chicago,  Eock 
Island  &  Pacific,  Michigan  Southern,  and  Chicago,  Pittsburg 
&  Fort  Wayne  Eailroads,  pass  within  from  six  to  ten  blocks 
of  its  western  line.  The  Pittsburg  &  Fort  Wayne  on  one 
side,  and  the  Illinois  Central  on  the  other,  are  now  running 
special  trains  to  accommodate  people  in  the  suburbs,  and  thou- 
sands of  laborers  and  business  men  go  every  morning  from  the 
city  on  the  Pittsburg  &  Fort  Wayne  road  to  the  stock  yards 
and  the  Michigan  Southern  Eailroad  shops,  both  of  which  are 
beyond  the  southern  limits  of  the  city. 

The  Eock  Island  Eailroad  Company  has  promised  to  run 
special  trains  as  soon  as  the  public  demand  it. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  Chicago  City  Eailway  now  runs  a 
dummy  from  Thirty-firs.t  street  to  the  Stock  Yards,  on  State 
street,  and  the  company  have  projected  their  road  along  State 
street  to  Englewood,  seven  and  a  half  miles  from  the  Court 
House,  and  will  have  a  dummy  running  to  that  point  within  the 


of  the  City  of  Chieago.  33 

present  year.  Still  another  line  of  communication  in  this  direc- 
tion, is  the  Cottage  Grove  and  Hyde  Park  Horse  and  Dummy 
Railroad,  by  means  of  which  the  parks  can  be  readily  and  quickly 
reached.  When  the  park  commissioners  shall  have  fairly 
entered  upon  the  work  of  improving  the  grounds,  and  when 
thousands  of  laborers  shall  be  required  to  pass  and  repass  daily 
to  the  park  sites,  these  facilities  for  suburban  travel  will  be 
greatly  enlarged  and  developed,  and  people  from  the  city  may, 
with  a  trifliiiig  expenditure  of  money  and  time,  find  themselves 
placed  upon  the  park  grounds.  In  this  respect  Lincoln  Park 
will  enjoy  no  advantage,  for  with  the  present  means  of  reaching 
it  as  much  time  is  consumed  as  will  be  consumed  in  reaching 
the  South  Side  parks  from  the  Court  House. 

LOCATION   AND  DISTANCE. 

The  northern  portion  of  the  park  begins  at  Fifty -first  street, 
about  five  and  a  half  miles  south  from  the  Court  House,  and 
extends  to  Sixtieth  street.  It  is  one  and  one-eighth  miles  in 
length  by  half  a  mile  in  width;  and  includes  an  area  of  four 
hundred  and  fifty  acres.  From  the  southern  boundary  of  this 
northern  portion  of  the  park,  a  boulevard,  six  hundred  and 
sixty  feet  in  width,  between  Fifty-ninth  and  Sixtieth  streets, 
leads  eastwardly  to  Hyde  Park  avenue,  where  it  connects  with 
the  lower  and  largest  portion  of  the  whole  park,  which  stretches 
west  of  Hyde  Park  avenue  and  south  of  Fifty-sixth  street, 
one  mile  in  length  along  the  lake  shore.  The  shape  of  that 
portion  of  the  park  which  lies  nearest  to  the  city  is  that  of 
a  parallelogram ;  the  shape  of  the  southern,  or  lake  front  portion, 
is  that  of  a  trapezoid,  with  its  longer  side  towards  the  south. 
The  distance  from  the  Court  House,  directly  south,  to  the 
extreme  southern  boundary  of  the  whole  park  is  nearly  eight 
miles. 

THE    PROSPECTIVE  VALUE   OF  PROPERTY. 

The  effect  of  parks  upon  the  values  of  real  estate  is  not  left 
to  conjecture.  However  much  the  poor  may  have  opposed  the 
inauguration  of  these  improvements,  from  the  fear  of  taxation, 
in  any  place  and  at  any  time,  the  fact  has  been  that  wherever 
a  liberal  park  scheme  was  once  fairly  established  and  its 
3 


34  Tlie  ParJcs  and  Property  Interests 

benefits  fully  experienced,  the  poor  have  beea  the  ones  who 
enjoyed  the  first  and  greatest  advantages.  In  a  purely  econom- 
ical point  of  view,  parks  are  necessary.  They  always  produce 
more  wealth  than  they  cost.  The  value  of  real  estate  in  New 
York  has  been  enhanced  many  millions  of  dollars  by  Central 
Park.  On  this  point,  the  Park  Commissioners,  in  their  last 
report,  eleven  years  from  the  commencement  of  the  work,  say : 

"  The  following  statistics  show  that  the  enhanced  value  of  property,  by  the 
laying  out  of  such  works,  is  more  than  ample  to  meet  the  interest  on  the  cost 
of  construction: 

Increased  value  of  property  in  Wards  11,  19  and  22  since  1856.$'75,6'75,Y50.00 

The  rate  of  tax  for  1867,  is  2.67,  yielding,  in  the  increased  val- 
uation above  stated,   an  increased  tax  of 2,020,542.58 

The  total  expenditure  for  construction  from  May 

1,  1857,  to  January  1,  1868,  is $5,185,299.11 

The  cost  ofland  of  the  park  to  the  city  is 5,028,844.10 

Total  cost  of  the  park  to  this  time $10,214,143.21 

The  annual  interest  on  the  cost  of  the  land  and 
improvement  of  the  park  up  to  this  time,  at 
6percent.,is $612,848.58 

Deduct  one  per  cent,  on  $399,300  of  the  above 
stock,  issued  at  5  per  cent 3,993.00       $608,855.58 

Excess  of  increased  tax  in  three  wards  over   interest  on  cost  of 

land  and  improvements $1,411,686.95 

"  This  increase  in  value  is  not  entirely,  but  largely,  owing  to  the  improve- 
ments of  the  park." 

The  Brooklyn  Park  Commissioners,  in  their  last  report,  say  : 

"  The  assessed  value  of  the  real  estate  in  the  Eighth  ward,  (where  the  park  is 
located,)  exclusive  of  the  amount  assessed  for  buildings,  has  increased  over 
thirty  per  cent,  during  the  last  year,  luhile  the  increased  value  of  real  estate  in  the  EigJdh 
and  Mnih  wards  has,  for  the  same  time,  amounted  to  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  in- 
creased value  of  the  entire  city. " 

The  following  comparison  will  show  the  rapid  rise  in  the 
value  of  real  estate  in  the  neighborhood  of  Prospect  Park, 
Brooklyn,  the  figures  being  those  given  in  the  books  of  the 
city  assessors.     In  1864  the  assessment  was  : 

Eighth  Ward $4,913,274 

Ninth  Ward 7,966,471 

Twentieth  Ward 7,069,650 

Total $19,949,395 


of  the  CUy  of  Chicago.  3,5 

In  1867  the  assessment  was: 

Eighth  Ward $7,083,200 

Nintli  Wcard 10,743,797 

Twentieth  Ward 8,705,090 

Total $27,432,087 

Increase  in  valuation  since  the  commencement   of  active  opera- 
tions on  the  park $7,482,692 

In  point  of  location,  Brooklyn  is  more  nearly  like  Chicago 
than  New  York,  since  it  is  capable  of  expansion  on  all  sides 
but  one,  and  what  has  taken  place  there  will  be  very  likely  to 
occur  here. 

Of  one  thing  we  may  be  assured — that  the  enhanced  valua- 
tion of  property  in  every  part  of  the  South  Division,  without 
increasing  the  rate  of  taxation,  will  yield  enough  additional  rev- 
enue within  the  next  five  years  to  pay  for  the  entire  park  im- 
provement Citizens  who  have  observed  the  course  which  city 
lots,  as  well  as  property  in  the  environs,  have  taken,  in  the  mar- 
ket, from  the  agitation  of  the  park  question  in  January  to  the 
passage  of  the  bill  in  the  legislature,  have  hardly  failed  to 
observe  that  the  value  of  real  estate  all  over  the  city  has 
become  enhanced  by  the  prospect  of  the  establishment  of  these 
great  parks.  Certainly  no  one  living  south  of  Twenty-second 
street  will  fail  to  see  that  the  enhanced  value  of  lots  from  that 
street  south  is  owing  very  largely  to  the  park  agitation ;  and 
it  is  capable  of  demonstration  that  the  value  of  every  foot  of 
real  estate  in  the  South  Division,  however  remote  from  the 
proposed  improvement,  has  been  already  appreciably  affected 
by  this  cause. 

The  certainty  of  the  commencement  and  ultimate  completion 
of  the  park  will  still  further  advance  prices,  and  when  work  shall 
have  been  actively  commenced  upon  these  improvements,  there 
is  no  doubt  that  a  much  larger  advance  in  prices  will  take  place. 

The  South  Park  will  contain,  in  round  numbers,  1,000  acres 
including  the  boulevards,  or  one  and  three-quarter  square  miles, 
which  will  be  takien  out  o&  the  field  of  competition  with 
other  suburban  real  estate.  The  effect  of  this,  in  itself,  will  be 
to  enhance  prices,  by  limiting  the  quantity  of  purchasable  land 
in  close  contiguity  to  the  present  city  limits.     Within  a  half 


36  TJie  Paries  and  Froperk/  Interests 

mile  of  the  parks  on  the  west,  and  between  the  parks  and  the 
present  city  limits  on  the  east,  are  from  five  to  six  square  miles 
of  property  which  will  be  included  within  the  city  limits.  This 
property  must  become  very  valuable,  and  will  largely  bear  the 
expenses  incident  to  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  the 
parks. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  that,  in  a  money  point  of  view, 
no  real  estate  owner  will  be  compelled  to  pay  for  these  parks 
nearly  so  much  as  he  receives  on  account  of  the  enhanced  value 
of  his  property.  Those  who  are  not"  owners  of  land,  of  which 
there  is,  and  always  will  be,  a  large  class,  may  be  said  to  be 
gainers  without  a  single  drawback.  Free  of  expense  to  them, 
except  their  time,  they  will  be  privileged  to  enjoy  in  these 
grounds  not  only  pure  air,  but  the  beauties  of  art  and  nature, 
which  are  nowhere  capable  of  being  rendered  so  impressive  as 
in  a  first-class  urban  park.  Their  children  may  there  spend 
their  summer  holidays ;  there  will  be  gathered,  in  zoological  and 
botanical  gardens,  objects  which  will  improve  the  knowledge 
and  gratify  the  taste  of  every  citizen.  The  singing  of  birds, 
the  playing  of  fountains,  the  bloom  and  fragrance  of  flowers, 
the  revelation  of  ever-changing,  beautiful  vistas,  constructed 
by  the  hand  of  the  landscape  artist,  will,  of  themselves,  repay 
every  one  who  shall  visit  these  places  of  recreation  and  amuse- 
ment. But,  besides  these,  the  grand  attraction  will  be  the 
people  themselves,  who  will  wish  to  be  seen  as  well  as  to  see. 

HYDE   PAEK. 

[  This  suburb  has  been  for  several  years,  a  place  of  residence 
for  hundreds  of  fashionable  and  wealthy  citizens,  special  trains 
on  the  Illinois  Central  Kailroad  furnishing  them  with  conven- 
ient means  of  reaching  the  city.  Next  season  the  means  of 
access  will  be  still  further  increased  by  a  line  of  steamers  to  ply 
to  and  fro  on  the  lake,  for  the  accommodation  of  pleasure-seeking 
parties  from  the  city.  Evanston  has  hitherto  been  the  landing 
place  for  short  aquatic  excursions ;  but  as  soon  as  the  South 
Park  is  in  a  fair  state  of  progress,  all  these  excursions  will  be 
directed  toward  the  south.  Hyde  Park  will  then  become  the 
Nahant  of  Chicago,  and  a  continuous  line  of  steamers  or  ferry 
boats  will  ply  in  the  summer  between  the  metropolis  and  that 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  3*7 


point  Forty  minutes  will  suffice  to  give  a  view  of  the  lake 
front,  and  a  taste  of  the  lake  breeze,  and  place  one  on  the 
ground  of  the  great  South  Park,  eight  miles  from  the  city. 

TOPOGRAPHICAL. 

The  surface  and  soil  of  the  South  Park  are  such  that  its 
improvement  will  be  a  matter  of  no  difficulty.  The  surface  is 
for  the  most  part  level,  the  variations  from  an  absolute  level 
being  not  over  ten  or  twelve  feet.  The  soil  is  sandy,  with  a 
surface  of  humus  which  produces  trees  of  considerable  size,  and 
grass  in  profusion.  Close  to  the  borders  of  the  park  is  a  peat 
bed  which  can  be  made  subservient  to  many  uses  in  the 
improvement  of  the  soil.  Trees,  of  all  varieties  adapted  to 
this  latitude,  will  grow  rapidly  when  properly  transplanted. 
The  lower  and  largest  portion  of  the  park  fronts  on  the  lake,  and 
may  easily  be  made,  as  it  certainly  will  be,  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  attractive  resorts  on  the  Continent. 

THE   LAW  FOR  THE   SOUTH  PARK.  ' 

The  following  is  a  full  and  correct  copy  of  the  law  provid- 
ing for  the  location  and  improvement  of  the  South  Park  : 

Section  1.  Be  it  enacted  hy  the  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  represented  in 
the  General  Assembly,  That  five  persons,  who  shall  be  appointed  by  the  gover- 
nor of  the  state  of  Illinois,  together  with  their  successors,  be,  and  they  are 
hereby,  constituted  a  board  of  public  park  commissioners,  for  the  towns  of 
South  Chicago,  Hyde  Park  and  Lake,  to  be  known  under  the  name  of  The 
South  Park  Commissioners;  and  in  case  of  the  failure  of  any  of  said  per- 
sons to  accept  such  appointment,  and  to  qualify  thereunder  as  hereinafter  pro- 
vided, within  sixty  days  after  tlie  passage  of  this  act.  the  place  of  such  per- 
son in  said  commission  shall  be  thereby  vacated,  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  a 
majority  of  the  commissioners  so  accepting  to  appoint  some  suitable  person  to 
fill  the  place  thus  made  vacant,  which  appointment,  when  accepted  by  such 
nominee,  shall  constitute  such  person  as  a  commissioner  under  this  act.  And 
a  majority  of  said  commissioners  shall  so  continue  to  nominate  until  the  board 
shall  consist  of  five  persons.  Each  of  said  commissioners,  before  entering  upon 
the  duties  of  his  office,  shall  take  an  oath  to  well  and  properly  discharge  the 
duties  of  his  oflSce  for  the  interests  of  the  public,  which  oath  shall  be  reduced  to 
writing,  subscribed  to  by  him,  and  file,  in  the  office  of  the  county  clerk  of 
Cook  county.  They  shall  each  give  a  bond  in  the  penal  sura  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  with  one  or  more  sureties,  to  be  approved  by  the  judge  of  the  circuit 
court  of  Cook  county,  to  the  treasurer  of  Cook  county,  conditioned  for  the 
faithful  discharge  of  their  duties  under  this  act. 

Sec.  2.  As  soon  as  convenient  aft^r  the  said  board  shall  be  constituted  as 
aforesaid,  the  members  thereof  shall  decide  by  lot,  at  a  meeting  to  be  called  by 
any  three  of  them,  as  to  the  respective  terms  for  which  each  member  shall 
hold  his  office  ;  the  number  of  lots  shall  equal  the  number  of  commissioners, 
and  the  person,  drawing  the  longest  term  shall  serve  for  five  years  from  the  first 
day  of  March,  A.  D.  1869;  the  one  drawing  the  next,  shall  serve  for  four  years 


38  The  Farhs  and  Property  Interests 

from  said  date  ;  the  one  drawinoj  the  next,  shall  serve  for  three  years  from 
said  date  ;  and  so  on  until  the  term  of  each  one  of  said  commissioners  shall  be 
definitely  determined,  each  one  serving  for  the  length  of  time  inscribed  on  the 
lot  drawn  by  him — the  last  of  said  commissioners  serving  for  the  term  of  one 
year  only  from  said  first  day  of  March,  A.  D.  1869.  As  soon  as  tlie  term 
of  office  of  each  of  sflid  commissioners  shall  be  determined  as  aforesaid,  said 
board  shall  organize  by  electing  one  of  their  number  as  president,  and 
one  of  their  number  as  auditor  ;  they  shall  also  appoint  a  treasurer, 
prescribe  his  duties,  and  fix  his  compensation,  who  shall  give  bond  for 
the  faithful  discharge  of  his  duties  in  the  penal  sum  of  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  with  not  less  than  three  sufficient  sureties,  to  be 
approved  by  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county.  They  shall  also 
choose  a  secretary,  who  shall  not  necessai-ilj' be  a  commissioner,  and  who  shall 
hold  his  office  until  his  successor  shall  be  appointed  as  hereainfter  provided  ; 
and  all  officers  appointed  by  the  board  shall  be  subject  to  removal  at 
the  pleasure  of  tlie  board.  The  said  board  shall  adopt  a  seal,  and  alter  the 
same  at  pleasure  ;  they  shall  keep  a  complete  record  of  all  of  iheir  proceed- 
ings, which  shall  be  open  at  all  times  for  the  inspection  of  the  public.  The 
said  commissioners  shall  receive  no  compensation  for  their  services,  except  the 
president,  wlio  may,  in  the  discretion  of  said  board,  have  and  receive  such 
compensation  as  may  be  fixed  as  hereinafter  provided,  not  to  exceed  three 
thousand  dollars  per  annum.  All  vacancies  occurring  in  said  board  shall  be 
filled  by  the  appointment  of  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county, 
when  such  vacancy  or  vacancies  shall  occur.  Said  board  of  commissioners 
shall  be  a  body  politic  and  corporate,  and  shall  have  and  enjoy  all  the  powers 
necessary  for  the  purposes  of  this  act. 

Sec.  3.  The  president,  auditor,  treasurer  and  secretary  shall  be  elected 
annually  by  said  board,  at  the  annual  meeting  thereof,  and  shall  receive  such 
salary  for  their  services  as  th<i  said  board  shall  from  time  to  time  determine, 
not  exceeding,  for  each  of  said  officers,  the  sum  of  three  thousand  dollars  per 
annum. 

Sec.  4.  The  said  commissioners,  by  this  act,  are  authorized  and  empow- 
ered to,  and  they  shall,  within  ninety  days  after  their  organization,  or  as  soon 
thereafter  as  practicable,  select  the  following  described  lands,  situated  in  the 
towns  of  South  Chicago,  Hyde  Park  and  Lake,  in  Cook  county,  Illinois, 
to  wit :  Commencing  at  the  south-west  corner  of  Fifty-first  street  and  Cottage 
G-rove  avenue,  running  thence  south  along  the  west  side  of  Cotiage  Grove 
avenue  to  the  south  line  of  Fifty-ninth  street ;  thence  east  along  the 
south  line  of  Fifty-ninth  street  to  the  east  line  of  Hyde  Park  avenue; 
thence  north  on  Hyde  Park  avenue  to  Fifty-sixth  street  ;  thence  east 
along  the  south  line  of  Fifty-sixth  street  to  Lake  Michigan;  thence  southerly 
along  the  shore  of  the  lake  to  a  point  due  east  of  the  center  of  section 
twenty-four  (24),  in  township  thirty-eight  (38)  north,  range  fourteen  (14); 
thence  west  through  the  center  of  said  section  twenty- four  (24)  to  Hyde  Park 
avenue;  thence  north  on  the  east  line  of  H3'de  Park  avenue  to  the  north  line 
of  Sixtietli  street,  so  called;  thence  west  on  the  north  line  of  Sixtieth  street, 
80  called,  to  Kankakee  avenue;  thence  north  on  the  east  line  of  Kankakee  avenue 
to  Fifty-first  street;  thence  east  to  a  point  to  the  place  of  beginning;  also,  a 
piece  of  land  commencing  at  the  south-east  corner  of  Kankakee  avenue  and 
Fifty-fifth  street,  running  thence  west  a  strip  two  hundred  feet  wide  adjoining 
the  north  line  of  Fiftj^-fif'th  street,  along  said  Fifty-fifth  street,  to  the  line  between 
ranges  thirteen  (13)  and  fourteen  (14)  east  ;  thence  north,  east  of  and  adjoin- 
ing said  line,  a  strip  200  feet  wide,  to  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal;  also, 
a  parcel  of  larfd  beginning  at  the  south-west  corner  of  Douglas  place  and  Kan- 
kakee avenue,  running  thence  south  a  strip  of  land  132  feet  wide,  alon:;  the 
west  side  of  said  Kankakee  avenue,  to  a  point  150  feet  south  of  the  iouth  line 
of  Fifty-first  street;  also,  a  strip  of  land  commencing  at  the  intersection  of 
Cottage  Grove  avenue  and  Fifty-first  street,  running  thence  east  100  feet  in 
width  on  each  side  of  the  centre  line  of  Fifty-first  street,  to  a  point  100  feet 
east  of  the  center  line  of  Drexel  avenue;  also,  a  strip  of  land  "extending  north 
from    the    intersection    of  Fifty-first    street  with  Drexel    avenue,    100    feet 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  39 

in  width  on  each  side  of  the  centre  line  of  said  avenue  to  the  north 
line  of  Forty-third  street;  thence  nortlierly,  a  strip  of  land  200  feet 
in  widtli  till  it  meets  or  intersects  with  Elm  street  in  Oleaverville  ;  thence 
soutlierly  along  said  Elm  street,  200  foet  in  width,  west  from  the  east  line 
of  said  street,  to  its  intersection  with  Oakland  avenue  ;  which  said  land 
land  and  premises,  when  acquired  by  said  commissioners  as  provided  by  this 
act,  shall  be  held,  managed  and  controlled  by  them  and  their  successors,  as  a 
public  park,  for  the  recreation,  health  and  benefit  of  the  public,  and  free  to  all 
persons  forever,  subject  to  such  necessary  rules  and  regulations  as  shall,  from 
time  to  time,  be  adopted  by  said  commissioners  and  their  successors  for  the  well 
ordering  and  government  of  the  same. 

Sec.  5.  In  case  the  said  commissioners  cannot  agree  with  the  owner  or 
owners,  lessees  or  occupants  of  any  of  the  said  real  estate  selected  by  them  as 
aforesaid,  they  may  proceed  to  procure  the  condemnation  of  the  same  in  tho 
m  inner  prescribed  in  the  act  of  the  general  assembly  of  the  state  of  Illinois, 
entitled  "  An  Act  to  amend  the  law  condemning  right  of  way  for  tlie  purpose  of 
internal  improvement,"  approved  June  22,  1852,  and  the  acts  amendatory 
thereof,  the  provisions  of  which  said  act,  and  the  several  acts  amendatory 
thereof,  are  hereby  extended  to  the  park  and  park  commissioners  to  be  created 
by  virtue  of  this  act. 

Sec.  6.  When  the  title  to  the  land  selected  for  such  park  as  lierein  provided 
sliall  have  been  acquired  by  said  commissioners,  by  gift,  condemnation,  or 
otherwise,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  commissioners  to  make,  acknowledge, 
and  file  for  record  in  the  office  of  the  recorder  of  deeds  for  Cook  county, 
a  map,  showing  the  said  land,  wiih  a  correct  description,  including  section, 
township  and  range. 

Sec.  7.  As  soon  as  the  amount  required  for  the  condemnation  of  the  ground.s 
selected  for  said  park  shall  have  been  ascertained,  by  said  commissioners,  with 
reasonable  certainty,  they  shall  apply  to  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook 
county  for  tiie  appointment  of  three  freeholders  of  the  county  of  Cook  as  park 
assessors.  The  commissioners  shall  give  notice  in  one  or  more  of  the  daily 
newspapers  published  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  of  the  time  when  such  applica- 
tion will  be  made,  and  all  parties  interested  may  appear  and  bo  he^ird  by  the 
said  judge,  touching  such  appointnient.  At  the  time  fixed  for  such  application, 
the  court,  after  hearing  such  persons  as  shall  desire  to  be  heard,  toucliing  such 
appointment,  shall  nominate  and  appoint  three  assessors  for  the  purposes 
provided  in  this  act.  The  said  assessors  shall  proceed  to  assess  the  amount  so 
ascertained  upon  property  in  the  towns  of  South  Chicago,  Hyde  Park  and'Lake, 
in  Cook  county,  deemed  benefited  by  reason  of  the  improvement  occasioned 
by  the  location  of  said  park,  as  near  a?  may  be  in  proportion  to  the  benefits 
resulting  thereto  :  Provided,  That  the  aggregate  of  said  benefits  is  equal  or 
greater  than  the  amount  of  said  damages  ;  and  in  case  the  aggregate  of  the  ben- 
fits  is  less  than  the  damages,  then  the  balance  of  the  damages  over  the  benefits 
shall  be  paid  from  the  fund  provided  for  in  section  8  of  this  act.  Upon 
entering  on  the  duties  of  their  office,  the  said  assessors  shall  make  oath  before 
the  clerk  of  the  said  circuit  court  faithfully  and  impartially  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  their  office.  They  shall  give  ac  least  ten  daj's  notice  in  one  of  the 
said  daily  papers  of  the  time  and  pface  of  their  meeting  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing said  assessment,  and  may  adjourn  such  meeting  from  time  to  time  until  the 
same  shall  be  completed.  In  making  the  said  assessment  the  said  assessors 
shall  estimate  the  value  of  the  several  lots,  blocks  or  parcels  of  land  deemed 
benefited  by  them  as  aHaresaid,  and  shall  include  the  same,  together  with  the 
amount  assessed  as  benefits,  in  the  assessment  roll.  All  parties  interested  may 
appear  before  said  assessors,  and  may  be  heard  touching  any  matter  cormected 
with  the  assessment.  When  the  same  shall  be  completed,  it  shall  be  signed  by 
the  assessors,  and  returned  to  the  said  circuit  court,  and  shall  be  filed  by  the 
clerk  thereof  The  assessors  shall  thereupon  give  at  least  ten  days  notice  in 
one  of  the  said  daily  papers,  of  the  filing  of  said  assessment  roll,  and  that  they 
will,  on  a  day  therein  named,  apply  to  the  said  circuit  court  for  confirmation 
of  the  same,  which  said  notice  shall  he  published  at  least  ten  days  before  the 
time    fixed  for  such    application.      Said  circuit  court  shall  have   power   to 


40  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests 

revise,  correct,  amend,  or  confirm,  said  assessment,  in  whole  or  in  part,  and 
may  make  or  order  a  new  assessment  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  the  same  revise 
and  confirm  upon  like  notice.  All  parties  interested  may  appear  before  said 
circuit  court,  either  in  person  or  by  attornej',  when  such  application  shall  be 
made,  and  may  object  to  said  assessment,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  provided 
ail  objections  shall  be  in  writing,  and  shall  be  tiled  at  least  three  days  before 
the  time  fixed  for  the  application,  and  shall  specify  the  lot,  block  or  parcels  of 
land  on  behalf  of  which  objection  is  made.  After  the  confirmation  of  said 
assessment,  the  clerk  of  said  circuit  court  shall  file  a  copy  thereof,  under  the 
seal  of  his  said  court,  with  the  clerk  of  the  county  court  of  Cook  county,  and 
such  assessment  shall  be  a  lien  upon  the  several  lots,  blocks  or  parcels  of  laud 
assessed  for  benefits  as  aforesaid.  Ten  per  cent,  of  the  amount  so  ascertained 
shall  be  payable  annually,  and  the  clerk  of  said  Cook  county  court  shall  include 
in  the  general  tax  warrants  for  each  year,  until  the  whole  sum  shall  be  paid, 
for  the  collection  of  state  and  county  taxes  in  the  said  towns  of  South  Chicago, 
Hyde  Park  and  Lake,  ten  per  cent,  of  the  said  assessments,  in  an  appropriate 
Qolumn,  to  be  termed  ' '  South  Park  Assessment,' '  with  the  amount  to  be  col- 
lected opposite  the  several  lots,  blocks  or  parcels  of  land  assessed  as  aforesaid  ; 
and  like  proceedings  in  all  respects  shall  be  had  for  enforcing  the  collection  of 
the  same  as  is  now  provided  by  law  for  the  collection  of  state  and  county  taxes. 
The  money  collected  under  the  provisions  of  this  section  shall  be  paid  to  the 
treasurer  of  Cook  county,  for  which  he  and  his  sureties  shall  be  responsible, 
as  full}^  as  for  any  other  moneys  by  hitn  received  as  treasurer  of  Cook  coimty, 
and  be  lield  by  him  in  the  same  manner  and  be  subject  to  the  same  control  and 
direction,  as  provided  in  this  act  for  other  moneys  belonging  to  said  corporation  ; 
and  the  treasurer  of  Cook  county  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  one-half  of  one  per 
cent.,  and  no  more,  of  said  moneys  as  a  full  compensation  for  receiving  and  dis- 
bursing the  same. 

Sec.  8.  For  any  deficiency  arising  through  acquiring  title  to  said  park  and 
for  the  payment  of  expenses  of  enclosing,  maintaining  and  improving  the  park 
herein  provided  for,  and  the  expenses,  disbursements  and  charges  in  the 
premises,  the  said  commissioners  shidl  have  power  to  loan  or  borrow,  from  time 
to  time,  for  such  tiiiie  as  they  shall  deem  expedient,  a  sum  of  money  not  exceed- 
ing two  millious  of  dollars,  and  shall  have  duthorily  to  issue  bonds,  secured 
upon  the  said  park  and  improvements,  which  bonds  shall  issue  under  the  seal 
of  said  commissioners,  and  shall  be  signed  by  said  commissioners,  and  coun- 
tersigned by  the  secretary  of  said  board,  and  bear  interest  not  exceeding  seven 
per  cent,  per  annum ;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  said  commissioners  to  keep  an 
accurate  register  of  all  bonds  issued  by  them,  showing  the  number,  date  and 
amount  of  each  bond,  and  to  whom  the  same  was  issued,  and  said  register  shall 
at  all  times  be  open  to  the  investigation  of  the  public  ;  and  for  the  payment  of 
the  principal  and  interest  of  said  bonds,  the  said  park  and  improvements  shall 
be  irrevocably  pledged,  and  the  towns  of  Soutli  Chicago,  Hyde  Park  and  Lake 
shall  be  irrevocably  bound  ;  and  said  bonds  maybe  sold  by  said  commissioners, 
upon  such  terms  and  for  such  prices  as,  in  the  judgment  of  said  commissioners 
can  be  obtained  for  the  same  in  cash. 

Sec.  9.  The  said  board  of  park  commissioners  shall,  annually,  on  or  before 
the  1st  day  of  December  in  each  year,  transmit  to  the  clerk  of  the  county 
court  of  Cook  county  an  estimate,  in  writing,  of  the  amount  of  money,  not  ex- 
ceeding in  any  one  year  three  hundred  thousand  dollars,  necessary  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  interest  on  the  bonds  issued  by  said  board,  and  that  in  addition 
thereto  will  be  required  for  the  improvement,  maintenance,  and  government  of 
said  park  during  the  current  year  ;  and  the  saia  clerk  shall  proceed  to  deter- 
mine wliat  per  cent,  said  sura  is  on  the  taxable  property  of  said  towns,  accord- 
ing to  the  several  assessors'  returns  for  the  respective  year,  and  shall,  in  the 
next  general  tax  warrants  for  the  collection  of  state  and  county  taxes  in  said 
several  towns,  set  down  the  amount  chargeable  to  the  several  persons,  corpor- 
ations, lots  or  parcels  of  ground,  in  a  separate  or  appropriate  column,  and  shall 
receive  such  compensation  as  now  allowed  by  law  ;  and  the  collectors  re- 
spectively shall  proceed  to  collect  the  same  in  the  manner  now  provided  by  law 
for  the  collection  of   state  and  county  taxes  ;  and  all  the  provisions  of  law,  in 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  41 

respect  to  the  collection  of  state  and  county  taxes,  and  proceedings  to  enforce 
the  same,  so  far  as  applicable,  shall  apply  to  said  assessments  and  taxes.  The 
said  sum  of  money  shall  be  placed  by  the  treasurer  of  the  said  county  of  Cook, 
to  the  credit  of  said  board  of  park  commissioners,  and  shall  be  drawn  by  said 
board  from  the  county  treasury  by  warrant,  signed  by  the  president  and  secre- 
tary of  the  board,  and  countersigned  by  the  auditor,  to  be  appointed  as  afore- 
said, and  in  no  other  way  ;  the  appointment  of  such  auditor  or  comptroller 
having  been  first  duly  certified  by  such  president  and  secretary,  and  filed  in 
the  office  of  said  treasurer  of  Cook  county. 

Sec.  10.  It  shall  be  lawful  for  said  commissioners  to  vacate  and  close  up 
any  and  all  public  roads  and  highways,  excepting  railroads,  which  may  pass 
tlirough,  divide  or  separate  any  lands  selected  or  appropriated  by  them  for  the 
purposes  of  a  park  ;  and  no  such  road  shall  be  laid  out  through  said  park  ex- 
cept such  as  the  said  commissioners  shall  lay  out  and  construct. 

Sec.  11.  No  one  of  the  said  commissioners  shall  be  interested,  either  direct- 
ly or  indirectly,  in  any  contract  entered  into  by  them  with  any  other  person  ; 
nor  shall  they  be  interested,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  purchase  of  any  mate- 
rial to  be  used  or  applied  in  and  about  the  uses  and  purposes  contemplated 
in  this  act.  And  it  shall  be  a  misdemeanor  for  any  commissioner  to  be  directly 
or  indirectly  interested,  or  in  any  way  pecuniarily  interested  in  any  contract  or 
work  of  any  kind  whatever,  connected  with  said  park. 

Sec.  12.  The  said  commissioners,  or  either  of  them,  may  be  removed  from 
office  by  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county,  upon  the  petition  pre- 
sented to  him  in  term  time  or  in  vacation,  by  one  hundred  freeholders  of  said 
towns  of  South  Chicago,  Hyde  Park,  and  Lake,  if  it  shall  appear,  after  hearing 
the  proof  before  said  judge,  that  the  said  commissioners,  or  either  of  them, 
have  been  guilty  of  misdemeanor  or  malfeasance  in  office  under  this  act  ;  and  if 
the  said  judge  shall  remove  any  two  or  more  of  said  commissioners  from  office 
for  any  cause,  before  the  expiration  of  their  term  of  office,  they  are  hereby  em- 
powered to  appoint  others  in  their  stead,  who  shall  fill  such  offices  for  and  dur- 
ing the  unexpired  term  of  such  commissioners  so  removed. 

Sec.  13.  The  said  board  shall  have  the  full  and  exclusive  power  to  govern, 
manage  and  direct  said  park  ;  to  lay  out  and  regulate  the  ^me  ;  to  pass  ordi- 
nances for  the  regulation  and  government  thereof ;  to  appoint  such  engineers, 
surveyors,  clerks,  and  other  officers,  including  a  police  force,  as  may  be  neces- 
sary ;  to  define  and  prescribe  their  respective  duties  and  autliority ;  fix  the 
amount  of  their  compensation  ;  and,  generally,  in  regard  to  said  park,  they  shall 
possess  all  the  power  and  authority  now  by  law  conferred  upon,  or  possessed 
by,  the  common  council  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  in  respect  to  the  public  squares 
and  places  in  said  city  ;  and  it  shall  be  lawful  for  them  to  commence  the  im- 
provement of  said  park  as  soon  as  they  have  obtained  one  hundred  acres  of  the 
premises  herein  described. 

Sec.  14.  The  office  of  any  commissioner  under  this  act,  who  shall  not  at- 
tend meetings  of  the  board  for  three  successive  months,  after  having  been  duly 
notified  of  said  meetings,  without  leave  of  absence  from  said  board,  may,  by 
said  board,  be  declared  vacant. 

Skc.  15.  The  real  estate  and  personal  property  of  said  corporation  shall  be 
exempted  from  taxation  and  assessment. 

Sec.  16.  All  moneys  belonging  or  to  belong  to  any  park  fund  now  in  exist- 
ence or  hereafter  to  be  created,  and  all  bonds,  and  the  proceeds  from  sales 
thereof  now  authorized  or  hereafter  to  be  authorized  to  be  issued  by  the  city 
of  Chicago  for  park  purposes,  in  or  to  which  the  South  Division  of  the  city  of 
Chicago  may.  now  or  shall  hereafter  be  entitled  to  a  distributive  share,  shall  be 
devoted  and  applied  to  the  purchase  or  maintenance  and  improvement  of  the 
park  contemplated  and  created  by  this  act,  under  the  direction  and  control  of 
the  Commissioners  provided  for  in  this  act. 

Sec.  1*1.  The  bonds  to  be  issued  under  this  act  may  be  received  in  payment 
of  any  assessment,  whether  such  bond  or  assessment  shall  have  become  due  or 
not,  upon  such  terms  as  shall  be  fair,  just  and  equitable  ;  and  upon  the  payment 
of  any  assessment,  the  land  upon  which  the  same  is  assessed  shall  be  free  from 
any  lien  or  liability  to  pay  the  same  ;  and  such  payment  shall  be  reported  to 


42  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests^  etc. 

the  county  clerk  of  Cook  county,  and  entered  upon  the  record  of  the  assess- 
ment. 

Seo.  18.  There  shall  be  an  election  held  in  the  towns  of  South  Chicago. 
Hyde  Park  and  Lake,  on  the  fourth  Tuesday  of  March  next  after  the  passage  of 
this  act,  at  which  election  the  legal  voters  voting  ai  such  election  shall  vote  for 
or  against  this  act.  Tlu^  tickets  shall  be  printed  or  written,  "For  Park  "  or 
"  Against  Park";  and  if  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast  on  the  subject  of  park 
ehall  be  ^'For  Park,"  then  this  act  shall  take  effect  and  be  in  force,but  not  other- 
wise. The  clerk  of  the  county  court  of  Cookcounty  shall  designate  tiie  places  of 
holding  such  election,  and  give  noti.?e  thereof  in  one  or  more  of  the  daily  pa- 
pers published  in  the  county  of  Cook,  at  least  six  days  preceding  such  election, 
and  shall  supply  the  judges  thereof  witli  the  necessary  books,  papers  and  boxes 
as  in  other  cases  of  elections  ;  and  there  ehall  be  one  polling  or  voting  place  in 
each  voting  precinct  in  said  towns,  as  the  same  were  fixed  at  the  last  general 
election  in  the  county  of  Cook.  The  persons  who  acted  as  judges  or  inspectors 
of  election  in  the  several  precincts  of  said  towns,  at  the  last  general  election  in 
Cook  county,  shall  be  the  judges  or  inspectors  of  this  election.  In  case  the 
judges  or  inspectors  of  election  shall  not  attend  at  the  time  for  opening  the  polls, 
such  judges  or  inspectors  shall  be  chosen  by  the  legal  voters 
present.  The  clerks  shall  be  appointed  as  provided  in  elections  for 
county  officers.  The  polls  shall  be  opened  and  closed,  and  the 
election  conducted  as  elections  for  county  ofScers.  All  legal  voters 
of  said  towns  sliall  be  entitled  to  vote  at  such  election,  without  any  new 
registration  ;  and  the  judges  or  inspectors  of  such  election  shall  use  the  regis- 
try list  made  for  the  general  election  in  Ifovember,  1868  ;  Provided,  That  wlien- 
ever  any  person  whose  name  is  not  on  the  registry  list  shall  offer  his  vote  at 
such  election,  the  judges  or  inspectors  shall  require  the  same  evidence  of  his 
quHliiicatiou  as  now  provided  by  law.  The  said  judges  of  election  shall  imme- 
diatel.y  after  the  closing  of  the  polls,  count  tlie  ballots,  fill  out  and  sign  the  returns 
and  tally -sheets, as  now  provided  bylaw  in  all  other  elections,  and  return  the  poll 
books  and  ballots  to  the  clerk  of  the  county  court,  as  in  other  cases  of  election. 
The  votes  shall  be  canvassed  in  the  manner  provided  by  law  for  the  election 
of  state  and  count*  ofScers.  The  clerk  of  the  county  court  of  Cook  county 
ehall,  immtdiately  after  such  canvass,  cause  a  certificate  of  the  result  of  such 
election  to  be  filed  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state,  which  shall  be  conclu- 
sive evidence  of  the  result  of  said  election. 

Sec.  19.  This  act  shall  be  a  public  act,  and  shall  take  effect  and  be  in  force 
from  and  after  its  passage. 


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Paries  of  the  City  of  Chicago.  45 


THE    WEST    PAEKS. 


The  "West  Parks  have  been  left  indefinite  both  in  respect  of 
size  and  exact  location.  They  are  to  be  three  in  number  and  are 
to  be  situated  within  the  new  city  limits  which  are  extended  two 
miles  west  of  Western  avenue :  one,  north  of  Division  street ; 
another,  between  Kinzie  and  Harrison  streets ;  and  a  third,  be- 
tween Harrison  street  and  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy 
Eailroad.  They  are  each  to  contain  not  less  than  one  hundred 
acres  nor  more  than  two  hundred,  and  are  severally  to  cost,  im- 
provements not  included,  not  more  than  $250,000.  Wide 
boulevards  will  connect  the  parks  with  each  other,  and  extend 
southwardly  from  the  most  southern  park  to  the  Illinois  and 
Michigan  Canal,  provided  that  the  land  therefor  shall  be 
obtained  free  of  cost.  When  these  parks  shall  have  been  lo- 
cated, the  city  limits  will  be  extended  so  as  to  include  them  with 
all  the  intervening  land  between  them  and  Western  avenue, 
and  the  vote  that  ratifies  the  park  also  extends  the  city  limits. 

In  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  bill,  three  surveys 
must  be  made  by  the  park  commissioners  antecedent  to  the  ex- 
act establishment  of  these  great  improvements.  In  the  location 
of  the  parks,  it  is  probable  that  the  board  of  commissioners  will 
be  obliged,  by  the  conditions  of  the  law,  to  place  them  where 
they  can  get  the  land  cheapest,  since  they  are  not  permitted  to 
pay  over  $2,500  per  acre.  The  indefiniteness  in  which  the 
location  of  these  parks  has  been  left,  has,  undoubtedly,  some- 
what checked  the  legitimate  effect  of  such  improvements  upon 
real  estate  values.  Notwithstanding  this,  however,  since  the 
first  day  of  January  last  nearly  all  real  estate  within  three  miles 
of  the  western  city  limits  has  doubled  in  valua 

COMMUNICATIONS. 

The  means  of  access  to  these  parks  will  be  hardly  inferior  to 
those  of  the  South  Park.  The  Galena  branch  of  the  Chicago  k 
Northwestern  Railroad  will  pass  between  the  north  and  middle 


46  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests 

parks ;  the  Chicago,  Burlington  k  Quincy  Eaih'oad  will  fur- 
nish a  convenient  access  to  the  soutli  park,  while  the  Chicago, 
Columbus  &  Indianapolis  Eailroad  will  pass  along  the  east 
front  of  the  central  and  southern  park.  No  doubt  all  these 
roads  will  establish  special  accommodation  trains  for  the  use  of 
the  people,  as  soon  as  the  improvement  of  the  parks  shall  have 
actually  commenced. 

By  means  of  the  horse  railways  of  the  West  Division,  the 
sites  of  these  parks  can  now  be  reached  within  convenient  dis- 
tance. The  cars  on  Madison  and  Randolph  streets  now  run  to 
the  city  limits,  while  the  Milwaukee  and  Blue  Island  avenue 
lines  have  been  extended  a  considerable  distance  towards  the 
north-west  corner  on  one  side  and  the  south-west  corner  on 
the  other.  These  lines  will  furnish  means,  at  all  hours  of  the 
day,  of  getting  at  least  into  the  vicinity  of  the  west  parks. 

Lake,  Randolph  and  Madison  streets  are  now  paved  a  long 
way  towards  the  present  western  city  limits,  and  at  least  one  of 
these  will  be  paved  to  the  boundaries  of  the  parks,  so  soon  as 
they  shall  have  become  objects  of  interest  to  the  public.  The 
completion  of  the  tunnel  at  Washington  street,  will  necessitate 
the  grading  and  paving  of  that  street  to  the  city  limits  at  the 
earliest  moment  compatible  with  other  public  improvements. 

DISTANCES. 

The  West  Side  Parks  are  nearer  to  the  population  that  must 
seek  them  than  are  those  in  the  South  Division.  From  Union 
Park,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  center  of  the  West 
Division,  the  distance  to  each  of  the  parks  in  that  division 
will  be  from  one  and  a  half  to  three  miles,  and  by  means  of  the 
railroads  already  mentioned,  together  with  the  wagon  and  car- 
riage roads  that  will  be  completed  to  their  boundaries,  these 
parks  will  be  very  accessible.  The  Southwestern  and  Grand 
avenues  shorten  distances  very  much  to  the  northern  and 
southern  parks,  since,  running  diagonally  to  the  north-west  and 
the  north-east,  they  furnish  a  direct  line  to  each. 

OTHER  IMPROVEMENTS. 

The  city  authorities  contemplate  the  extension  of  the  lake 
tunnel  under  the  city  and  the  river  to  some  point  in  the  West 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  4T 

Division,  wliere  pumping  works  will  be  established,  and  whence 
will  radiate  the  mains  which  are  to  furnish  water  for  the  West 
Division.  When  this  work  shall  be  accomplished,  which  will 
certainly  be  done  as  soon  as  the  parks  shal  be  fairh'-  commenced, 
there  will  be  an  opportunity  for  the  creation  of  fountains,  lakes, 
and  skating  parks  on  the  grandest  scale.  The  soil  in  the 
vicinity  of  these  parks  being  a  tough  clay,  infiltration  can  be 
readily  reduced  to  the  lowest  point,  and  when  the  ponds  are 
once  filled,  there  will  be  no  demand  for  water,  except  to 
supply  the  loss  from  evaporation.  Besides,  experiment  has 
proved  that  the  construction  of  artesian  wells  is  practicable, 
and  water  for  all  the  ordinary  purposes  of  the  parks  can  be 
supplied  by  them, 

TOPOGEAPHY. 

The  configuration  of  the  surface  of  these  parks  corresponds 

to  a  perfect  plane  as  nearly  as  is  ever  to  be  found  in  nature. 
On  this  plane,  at  present,  there  is  not  a  single  tree  to  be  found  ; 
but  this  is  of  no  consequence,  since  the  labor  of  planting  is  all 
that  is  necessary  to  create  upon  the  ground  the  most  delightful 
groves  and  sylvan  recesses.  The  experiment  of  the  New  York 
Central  Park  commissioners  proves  that  trees  naturally  located 
are  rather  in  the  way  than  a  benefit ;  since  the  plans  of  the 
landscape  gardener  can  hardly  ever  be  carried  out  without 
their  rerrioval. 

THE    LAW   FOR   THE   WEST   SIDE    PARKS. 

The  following  is  a  full  and  correct  copy  of  the  law  pro- 
viding for  the  location  and  improvement  of  the  West  Side 
Parks : 

Section  1.  Be  'it  enacted  hy  the  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  represented  in 
the  General  Assembly,  Thai  the  territorial  limits  of  the  city  of  Cliicago  sliall  be, 
and  are  hereby,  extended  as  follows:  That  part  of  section  tliirty  (3U),  township 
forty  (40)  north,  of  range  fouitoen  (14)  east  of  the  third  (3rd)  principal  meridian, 
which  lies  west  of  the  north  branch  of  the  Chicago  river;  section  twenty-live 
(25),  township  forty  (40)  north,  of  range  thirteen  (13)  east  of  the  third  (3rd)  prin- 
cipal meridian,  except  that  part  of  said  section  lying  east  of  tlie  center  of  the 
north  branch  of  the  Chicago  river;  sections  twenty-six  (26),  thirty-five  (35),  and 
thirty-six  (36),  in  township  forty  (40)  north,  of  range  thirteen  (13)  east  of  the  third 
principal  meridian;  sectionsone  (l),two  (2),  eleven  (11), twelve  (12), thirteen  (13), 
lourteen  (14),  twenty-three  (23),  twenty-fonr  (24),  twenty-five  (25),  and  twenty- 
six  (26),  in  township  thirty-nine  (S9)  nortli,  of  range  thirteen  (13)  oast  of  the 
third  (3rd)  principal  meridian;  and  that  part  of  sections  tJiiriy-live  (35)  and 
thirty-six  (36),  in  township  thirty-nine  (39)  north,  of  range  tliirteon  (13)  east  of 
the  third  (3rd)  principal  meriaian,  lying  north-west  of  the  center  of  the  Illinois 


48  The  Paries  and  Property  Interests 

and  Michigan  canal,  shall  be,  and  are  hereby  added  to  said  city,  and  shall  con- 
stitute a  part  of  the  "West  Division  of  said  city,  and  of  the  town  of  West 
Chicago;  and  the  said  added  or  new  territory  shall  cease  to  be  a  part  of  the  sev- 
eral towns  to  which  it  now  belongs  or  appertains;  and  the  outside  boundary 
of  the  West  Division  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  as  hereby  established,  shall  be  the 
outside  boundary  of  the  several  wards  of  said  city  which  now  extend  to  the 
present  city  limits. 

Sec.  2.  Seven  persons,  resident  freeholders  and  qualified  voters  of  said 
town,  who  shall  be  designated  by  the  governor  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  together 
with  their  successors,  shall  be,  and  they  are  hereby,  constituted  a  board  of 
public  park  commissioners  for  the  town  of  West  Chicago,  to  be  known  under 
the  name  of  the  "  West  Chicago  Park  Commissioners  ";  and,  in  case  of  the 
failure  of  any  of  said  persons  to  accept  such  appointment,  and  to  qualify 
thereunder,  as  hereinafter  provided,  within  sixty  days  after  the  passage  of 
this  act,  the  place  of  such  person  in  said  commission  shall  be  thereby 
vacated  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commissioners  so  accepting  to 
certify  the  fact  of  such  failure  and  vacancy  to  the  governor,  who  shall 
appoint  some  suitable  person  or  persons  possessing  the  qualifications 
aforesaid,  to  fill  the  place  or  places  thus  made  vacant;  and  vacancies  shall 
continue  to  be  filled  in  like  manner  until  the  board  shall  have  been  filled 
and  constituted  by  the  acceptance  and  qualification  of  seven  persons.  Each  of 
said  commissioners,  before  entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office,  shall  take  an 
oath  to  well  and  properly  discharge  the  duties  of  his  office  for  the  interests  of 
the  public  ;  which  oath  shall  be  reduced  to  writing,  subscribed  to  by  him,  and 
filed  in  the  oifice  of  the  county  clerk  of  Cook  county.  Thej^  shall  each  give  a 
bond  in  the  penal  sum  of  twenty  thousand  dollars,  with  one  or  more  sureties, 
to  be  approved  by  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county,  to  the  treas- 
urer of  Cook  county,  conditioned  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  their  duties  under 
this  act. 

Sec.  3.  As  soon  as  convenient  after  the  said  board  shall  be  constituted  as 
aforesaid,  the  members  thereof  shall  decide  by  lot,  at  a  meeting  to  be  called  by 
any  three  of  them,  as  to  the  respective  term  for  which  each  member  shall  hold 
his  office.  The  number  of  lots  shall  equal  the  number  of  commissioners;  and 
the  person  drawing  the  longest  term  shall  serve  seven  years  from  the  first  day 
of  March,  A.  D.  1869-,  the  one  drawing  the  next  shall  serve  for  six  years 
from  said  date;  the  one  drawing  the  next  shall  serve  for  five  years  from  said 
date;  and  so  on,  until  the  term  of  each  one  of  said  commissioners  shall  be 
definitely  determined;  each  one  serving  for  the  length  of  time  inscribed  on  the 
lot  drawn  by  him, — the  last  of  said  commissioners  serving  for  one  term  only, 
from  said  first  day  of  March,  A.  D.  1869.  As  soon  as  the  term  of  office  of  each 
of  said  commissioners  shall  be  determined  as  aforesaid,  said  board  shall  organ- 
ize by  electing  one  of  their  number  as  president,  and  one  of  their  number  as 
auditor.  They  shall  also  appoint  a  treasurer,  prescribe  his  duties,  and  fix  hia 
compensation,  who  shall  give  bond  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  his  duties  in  the 
penal  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  with  not  less  than  three  sufficient  sureties,  to 
be  approved  by  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county.  They  shall  also 
choose  a  secretary,  who  shall  not  necessarily  be  a  commissioner,  and  who  shall 
hold  his  office  until  his  successor  shall  be  appointed,  as  hereinafter  provided; 
and  all  officers  appointed  by  the  board  shall  be  subject  to  removal  at  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  board.  The  board  shall  adopt  a  seal,  and  alter  the  same  at  pleasure. 
They  shall  keep  a  complete  record  of  all  their  proceedings,  which  shall  be 
open  at  all  times  for  the  inspection  of  the  public.  The  said  commissioners  shall 
receive  no  compensation  for  their  services,  except  the  president,  who  may,  in 
the  discretion  of  the  board,  have  and  receive  such  compensation  as  may  be 
fixed,  as  hereinafter  provided,  not  to  exceed  four  thousand  dollars.  All  vacan- 
cies occurring  in  said  board  shall  be  filled  as  soon  as  may  be  thereafter  by  the 
appointment  of  the  governor  of  the  state  of  Illinois.  The  said  board  of  com- 
missioners shall  be  a  body  politic  and  corporate,  with  perpetual  succession  and 
power  to  sue  and  be  sued,  plead  and  be  impleaded,  to  have  and  use  a  common 
seal,  and  they  shall  have  and  enjoy  all  the  powers  necessary  for  the  pur- 
poses of  this  act. 


of  the  Oily  of  Chicago.  49 

Sec.  4.  The  said  board  of  commissioners  shall  have  full  and  exclusive 
power  to  govern,  manage  and  direct  all  parks,  boulevards,  and  ways  author- 
ized by  this  act,  and  by  them  purchased,  made,  laid  out  or  established;  to  lay 
out,  regulate,  make  and  improve  the  same;  to  pass  ordinances,  and  issue  and 
enforce  orders,  for  the  legislation  and  government  of  the  same;  to  levy 
special  assessments  on  all  property  by  them  deemed  benefited  by  the 
purchase,  opening  and  improving  of  such  parks,  boulevards,  and  ways,  as 
limited  by  this  act ;  to  appoint  such  engineers,  surveyors,  clerks,  and  other 
officers,  including  a  police  force,  as  may  be  necessary ;  to  define  and  pre- 
scribe their  respective  authority,  and  fix  the  amount  of  their  compensation; 
and  generally,  in  regard  to  said  parks,  boulevards,  and  ways,  they  shall  possess 
all  the  power  and  authority  now  by  law  conterred  upon  or  possessed  by  the 
common  council  of  the  city  of  Chicago  in  respect  to  the  public  squares,  places 
and  streets  in  said  city.  And  it  shall  be  lawful  for  them  to  commence  the  im- 
provement of  the  same  as  soon  as  the  funds  requisite  therefor,  or  any  portion 
iliereof,  shall  have  been  obtained.  The  expenditure  for  engineers,  surveyors, 
clerks,  and  oflicers,  except  the  president,  including  a  police  force,  shall  not 
exceed  five  thousand  dollars  ($5,0U0)  per  annum,  without  further  authority 
from  the  general  assembly;  but  said  board  may  accept  of  the  service  of  such  of 
the  police  lorce  of  the  city  of  Chicago  as  may  be  placed  at  their  disposal  by 
the  common  council  or  police  authorities  of  said  city. 

Sec.  5.  The  said  board  shall  have  power,  and  it  is  made  their  duty,  and  they 
are  hereby  authorized  to  select  and  take  possession  of,  and  to  acquire  by  condem- 
nation, contract,  donation,  or  otherwise,  title  forever,  in  trust  for  the  inhabitants 
of  the  town  of  West  Chicago,  and  of  the  West  Division  of  Chicago,  and  for  such 
parties  or  persons  as  may  succeed  to  the  rights  of  said  inhabitants,  and  for  the 
public,  as  public  promenade  and  pleasure  grounds,  and  ways,  but  not  without 
the  consent  of  a  majority,  by  frontage,  of  the  owners  of  the  property  fronting 
the  same,  lor  any  other  use  or  purpose,  and  without  the  power  to  sell,  alienate, 
mortgage  or  encumber  the  same,  to  the  lands  and  appurtenances  required  for  a 
road  or  pleasure-way,  or  boulevard,  not  less  luan  two  hundred  and  fifty  (250) 
leet,  nor  more  than  four  hundred  (4(J0)  teet,  in  width,  and  for  the  establishment 
of  a  building  line,  as  hereafter  specified,  fifty  (5u)  feet  distant  from,  and 
outside  of,  said  boulevard  or  pleasure- way, — beginning  at  a  point  in  said  added 
territory  north  of  FuUerion  avenue,  at  or  near  ino  north  branch  of  the  Chicago 
river,  and  extending  west,  within  said  added  territory,  to  a  point  one  mile  or 
more  west  of  Western  avenue,  and  thence  southerly  to  a  point  at  or  near  the 
llimois  and  Michigan  canal,  with  such  curves  and  deviations  as  they  shall 
deem  expeaient;  also,  to  the  lands  required,  and  building  lines  aforesaid,  for 
three  parks  upon  the  line  of  said  boulevard,  and  upon  the  part  of  the  t-ame 
between  the  two  last  mentioned  points,  of  not  less  than  one  hundred  (lOO) 
nor  more  than  two  hundred  (_20U)  acres  each,  and  wnich  shall  cost  respectively 
not  exceeding  two  hundred  and  fitty  thousand  dollars  ($250,000);  the  first  to 
be  located  north  of  Division  street;  the  second  to  be  located  between  Kinzie 
street  and  Harrison  street,  and  the  third  to  be  located  between  Harrison  street 
and  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  railroad  track.  The  total  cost  of  said 
parks  and  boulevards,  with  the  easements  and  building  line  aforesaid,  exclusive 
of  improvements,  shall  not  exceed  $9UU,0UO,  and  shall  be  assessed  on  the 
property  benefited,  as  hereinafter  provided.  It  the  said  board  should  locate  any 
part  of  said  boulevard  or  parks  outside  of  the  said  extended  ^territory  and 
limits,  each  section  of  the  laud  west  of  the  same,  of  which  a  part  shall  be 
taken  for  such  boulevard  or  parks,  shall  be  and  remain,  together  with  the 
lauds  and  territory  between  the  same  and  the  said  extended  limits,  a  part  of 
the  said  town  and  city,  and  of  the  several  wards  thereof,  as  aforesaiii,  and 
shall  cease  to  be  apart  of  the  several  towns  to  which  it  now  belongs  or  apper- 
tains; but  in  no  case  shall  the  western  limits  of  either  of  said  parks  be  over 
two  (2)  miles  from  Western  avenue,  unless,  by  voluntary  contribution,  land  be 
added  to  such  park  outside  of  said  limila.  baid  lands,  boulevard  and  parks, 
and  the  personal  property  of  said  board,  shall  be  exempt  from  taxation.  The 
said  board  may  contract  with  the  owners  of  property  taken  or  purchased,  for 
annual  payments,  not  to  extend  beyond  five  years;  and,  in  such  case,  shall 
4 


50  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests 

only  include  in  the  assessment  for  any  year  the  amount  of  such  annual  pay- 
ments  then  due,  if  any,  and  the  amount  of  one  annual  payment  for  tlmt  year, 
or  next  to  become  due.  They  are  also  authorized  to  divide  the  amount  of 
their  assessments,  and,  when  it  can  legally  be  done,  to  make  one  or  more 
assessments,  payable  in  annual  installments,  which  shall  be  a  lien  on  property 
only  for  the  amount  payable  each  year.  The  part  of  said  boulevards  between 
said  north  park  and  the  north  branch  of  the  Chicago  river,  aud  the  part  of 
the  same  south  of  the  said  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  railroad  track,  shall 
not  be  made,  unless  the  land  therefor  shall  be  acquired  free  of  cost  to  said 
board,  and  shall  not  be  ornamented  or  improved  until  after  the  improvement 
of  the  parks  shall  have  been  completed,  unless  the  same  be  done  by  voluntary 
contribution. 

Sko.  6.  The  establishment  of  a  building  line  outside  of  said  boulevard  and 
parks,  as  hereinbefore  required,  in  connection  with  the  condemnation  of  the 
land  for  the  same,  shall  be  understood  to  be  the  condemnation^  and  perpetual 
annihilation  of  all  right  of  the  owners  of  property  which  shall  front  on  said 
boulevard,  or  across  which  said  building  line  shall  run,  to  erect  any  building 
whatever,  or  any  part  thereof,  between  said  building  line  and  said  boulevards 
or  parks;  or  it  may  be  accomplished  by  the  absolute  condemnation  of  the 
land,  with  perpetual  and  irrevocable  free  license  to  use  and  occupy  fifty  (50) 
feet  in  width  of  the  same  for  all  purposes  not  otherwise  forbidden,  except 
buildings,  as  the  said  board  shall  be  advised  may  be  preferable  and  mo!*t 
efi'ectual. 

Sec.  7.  No  subdivision  into  lots  of  auy  lands  in  said  town  lying  within 
four  hundred  (400)  feet  of  said  boulevards,  or  either  of  said  parks,  shall  be 
valid  without  the  approval  of  said  board  of  park  commissioners;  and  they 
also  shall  have  power  to  forbid  by  general  order,  and  to  abate  any  horise- 
racing,  gambling,  or  offensive,  or  obnoxious,  or  dangerous  business,  or 
amusements,  within  four  hundred  (400)  feet  of  said  boulevards  and  parks,  or 
either  of  them;  and  the  right  to  use  the  said  adjacent  lands  for  any  such  pur- 
poses shall  be  deemed  to  be  included  in  the  assessment  and  condemnation  above 
provided  for.  Bat  no  lawful  business  now  established  and  carried  on  upon 
8aid  adjacent  lands  shall  be  prohibited  or  abated,  without  a  fair  valuation  and 
due  and  full  compensation. 

Sec.  8.  The  said  board  shall  have  power  to  construct  all  necessary  bridges 
and  viaducts  over  rivers,  watercourses  and  railroads  within  or  on  the  line  of 
said  town;  and  it  shall  be  their  duty  to  construct  the  same  as  soon  as  the  means 
shall  have  been  provided  therefor. 

,>^  Sec.  9.  The  said  board  of  park  commissioners  are  hereby  required  to  make 
not  less  than  three  topographical  surveys  and  examinations  of  different  routes 
for  said  boulevard  and  outline  sof  parks,  with  complete  elevations,  before  locat- 
ing the  same;  and  to  invite  owners  of  property  to  confer  with  them  in  regard 
to  donations  of  land.  They  are  also  authorized  to  receive  donations  or  appro- 
priations of  money  for  the  purchase  or  improvement  of  the  same,  and  lands  for, 
or  as  a  part  of,  or  to  be  added  to,  said  boulevard  or  either  of  said  parks,  upon 
conditions  to  be  agreed  upon. 

Sec.  10,  None  of  the  main  streets  and  avenuts  leading  to  the  said  boulevard 
and  parks,  and  which  have  heretofore  been  opened  aud  used  as  country  roads 
or  highways,  shall  ever  be  closed  up  or  reduced  in  width,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
except  streets  near  the  river  and  its  branches,  which  may  require  to  be  clianged 
for  business  purposes  or  greater  convenience  of  access.  The  board  of  public 
works  are  hereby  authorized  and  required,  upon  the  order  of  the  common 
council,  to  make  and  to  assess,  in  the  manner  herein  and  in  the  city  charter 
provided,  subject  to  confirmation  by  the  common  council,  the  benefits  aud  dam- 
ages resulting  from  the  extension  of  the  road  known  as  "Whisky  Point  road," 
as  nearly  &i  may  be  in  its  present  direction,  from  its  present  western  terminus, 
at  Western  avcue,  to  Fulton  street,  of  the  width  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
(120)  feet,  and  from  Fulton  street  to  Lake  street,  of  the  width  of  eighty  (80) 
feet;  and  the  widening  said  road,  from  its  present  terminus  at  Western  avenue, 
to  the  new  or  extended  city  limits,  to  the  width  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
(120)  feet,  with  a  building  line,  as  hereinbefore  defined  and  spjcified,    distau 


of  the  City  of  Chicago. 


ten  (10)  feet  from  and  outside  of  each  side  of  said  road  from  Fulton  street  to 
"Western  avenue,  and  fifty  (50)  feet  from  and  outside  of  said  road  from  Wesleni 
avenue  to  the  new  or  extended  city  limits;  and  also  the  grading  and  macadam- 
izing said  road,  or  the  middle  part  thereof,  to  the  width  of  at  least  thirty  (30) 
feet,  and  a  viaduct  or  viaducts  for  carriages,  teams  and  foot  passengers,  over 
all  railroad  tracks  laid  or  hereafter  to  be  laid  across  said  road.  The  several 
township  road  officers,  and  the  Cook  county  drainage  commissioners,  and  all 
other  officers  now  or  hereafter  authorized  to  open  roads  on  said  line  outside  of 
the  city  limits,  in  making  any  assessment  for  widening  said  road,  are  authorized 
and  required  to  include  the  establishment  of  said  building  line  fifty  (50)  feet 
distant  from  and  outside  said  road,  as  aforesaid.  Tlie  name  of  the  said  '•  Whis- 
ky Point  road,"  both  within  and  beyond  said  city  limits,  shall  be,  and  is  hereby 
changed,  and  shiill  be  known  for  ever  hereafter  as  "  Grand  avenue."  Tlie 
Southwestern  avenue,  from  MadLson  street  to  the  city  limits,  shall  also  be  mac- 
adamized, with  the  consent  and  approval  of  the  common  counciL 

Sec.  U.  In  case  the  said  commissioners  cannot  agree  with  the  owner  or 
owners,  lessees,  or  occupants,  of  any  of  the  said  real  estate  selected  by  them, 
as  aforesaid,  they  naay  proceed  to  procure  the  condemnation  of  the  same  in  the 
manner  prescribed  in  the  act  of  the  general  assembly  of  the  State  of  Illinois 
entitled  "  An  Act  to  amend  the  law  condemning  right  of  way  for  the  purpose 
of  internal  improvement,"  approved  Jan.  22,  1852,  aad  the  acts  then  in  force 
amendatory  tliereof:  the  provisions  of  which  said  act,  and  the  several  acts 
amendatory  thereof,  are  hereby  extended  to  the  boulevard,  parks  and  park 
commissioners  to  be  created  by  virtue  of  this  act. 

Sec.  12.  When  the  title  of  the  land  selected  for  boulevards,  ways,  ease- 
ments, parks,  and  building  lines,  as  herein  provided,  shall  have  been  acquired 
by  the  commissioners  by  gift,  condemnation,  or  otherwise,  it  shall  be  the  duty 
of  such  commissioners  to  make,  acknowledge  and  file  for  record  in  the  office  of 
the  recorder  of  deeds  for  Cook  county,  a  map  showing  the  said  land,  with  a 
correct  description,  including  section,  township  and  range. 

Sec.  13.  As  soon  as  the  amount  required  for  the  condemnation  of  the  grounds 
selected  for  said  purposes  shall  have  been  ascertained  by  said  commissioners 
with  reasonable  certainty,  they  shall  apply  to  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of 
Cook  county  for  the  appointment  of  three  disinterested  freehold'TS  as  assessors, 
one  of  whom  shall  reside  north  of  Division  street,  one  between  Division  and 
Harrison  streets,  and  one  south  of  Harrison  street,  all  in  said  West  Chicago. 
The  commissioners  shall  give  notice,  in  three  or  more  of  the  daily  newspapers 
published  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  and  by  posting  written  or  printed  notices  in 
three  public  places  in  said  West  Chicago,  of  the  time  when  such  application 
will  be  made;  and  all  parties  interested  may  appear  and  be  heard  by  the  said 
judge  touching  such  appointment,  at  the  time  fixed  for  such  application.  The 
court,  after  hearing  such  persons  as  shall  desire  to  be  heard  touching  such 
appointment,  shall  nominate  and  appoint  three  assessors,  qualified  as  aforesaid, 
for  the  purposes  provided  in  the  act.  The  said  assessors  shall  proceed  to  assess 
the  amount  so  ascertained  upon  the  property  by  them  deemed  benefited  by 
reason  of  the  improvement  occasioned  by  the  location  of  said  boulevard  and 
park,  with  their  appurtenances,  as  near  as  may  be  in  proportion  to  the  benefits 
resulting  thereto;  and  also  the  damages,  if  any,  occasioned  by  the  taking  or 
condemnation  of  any  land,  right,  or  easement,  as  aforesaid;  and  in  general,  the 
form  and  particulars  of  the  assessment  shall  be,  as  near  as  may  be,  the  same 
required  by  the  city  charter  of  Chicago  in  the  condemnation  of  land,  and  the 
laying  out  of  streets.  From  the  funds  derived  from  said  assessment,  and  from 
the  other  funds  of  the  said  board  applicable  to  such  purpose,  the  said  board 
shall  pay  to  the  parties  entitled  thereto,  the  amouuts  respectively  due  them; 
and  thereupon  the  title  of  the  said  lands,  ways,  building  line,  easements,  and 
parks,  or  that  portion  thereof  so  paid  for  as  aforesaid,  shall  become  fixed  and 
vested  in  the  said  board  and  their  successors,  in  the  manner,  to  the  extent,  for 
the  purposes,  and  subject  to  the  limitations  hereinbefore  provided.  Upon  en- 
tering upon  the  duties  of  their  office,  the  said  assessors  shall  make  oath  before 
the  clerk  of  the  said  circuit  court,  faithfully  and  impartially  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  their  office;  they  shall  give  at  least  ten  (10)  days  notice,  in  three  of  the 


52  TJie  Parks  and  Property  Interests 

eaid  daily  papers,  and  by  posting  notices  as  aforesaid,  of  the  time  and  place  of  their 
meeting  for  the  purpose  of  makini^  said  assessment;  and  may  adjourn  said  meet- 
ing from  time  to  time,  until  the  same  shall  be  completed.  In  making  the  said 
assessment,  the  said  assessors  shall  estimate  the  value  of  the  several  lots, 
blocks  or  parcels  of  land  deemed  benefited  by  thetn  as  aforesaid,  and  shall 
include  the  same,  together  with  the  amount  assessed  as  benefits,  in  the  assess- 
ment roll.  All  parties  interested  may  appear  before  eaid  assessors,  and  be 
heard  touching  auy  matter  connected  with  the  assessment.  When  the  same 
shall  be  completed,  it  shall  be  signed  by  the  assessors,  and  returned  to  the  said 
circuit  court,  and  shall  be  filed  by  the  clerk  thereof.  The  assessors  shall  tliere- 
upon  give  at  least  ten  (10)  days  notice,  in  three  of  the  said  daily  newspapers, 
and  by  posting  notices,  as  aforesaid,  of  the  filing  of  said  assessment  roll;  and 
that  they  will,  on  a  day  therein  named,  apply  to  the  circuit  court  for  confirma- 
tion of  the  same;  which  said  notice  shall  be  published  at  least  ten  (10)  days 
before  tlie  time  fixed  for  such  application.  Said  circuit  court  shall  have  power 
to  revise,  correct,  amend  or  confirm  said  assessment,  in  whole  or  in  part,  and 
may  make  or  order  a  new  assessment,  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  the  same  revise 
and  confirm,  upon  like  notice.  All  parties  may  appear  before  said  circuit  court, 
either  in  person  or  by  attorney,  when  such  application  shall  be  made,  and  may 
object  to  said  assessment,  either  in  whole  or  in  part:  Provided,  All  objections 
shall  be  in  writing,  and  shall  be  filed  at  least  three  days  before  the  lime  fixed 
for  the  application,  and  shall  specify  the  lot.  block  or  parcels  of  land  on  behalf 
of  which  objection  is  made.  After  the  confirmation  of  the  said  assessment, 
the  clerk  of  said  circuit  court  shall  file  a  copy  thereof,  under  the  seal  of  his 
said  court,  with  the  clerk  of  the  county  court  of  Cook  county,  and  said  assess- 
ment shall  be  a  lien  upon  the  several  lots,  blocks  or  parcels  of  land  assessed 
for  benefits  as  aforesaid.  The  clerk  of  the  said  Cook  county  court  shall  include 
iu  the  general  warrants  for  each  year,  until  the  assessments  for  the  purposes 
authorized  by  this  act  shall  have  been  completed,  and  until  the  whole  sum 
shall  be  paid,  for  the  collection  of  state  and  county  taxes  in  the  said  town  of 
West  Chicago,  the  said  assessments,  in  an  appropriate  column,  to  be  termed 
"  West  Park  and  Boulevard  Assessment,"  with  the  amount  to  be  collected  op- 
posite the  several  lots,  blocks  or  parcels  of  land  assessed  as  aforesaid;  and 
like  proceedings  in  all  respects  shall  be  had  for  enforcing  the  same  as  are  now 
provided  by  law  for  the  collection  of  state  and  county  taxes.  The  moneys  col- 
lected under  the  provisions  of  this  section  shall  be  paid  to  the  treasurer  of  Cook 
•county,  for  which  he  and  his  sureties  shall  be  responsible,  as  fully  as  for  any 
•other  moneys  by  him  received  as  treasurer  of  Cook  county,  and  be  held  by  him 
ill  the  same  manner,  and  be  subject  to  the  same  control  and  direction,  as  pro- 
.vided  in  this  act  for  other  moneys  belonging  to  said  corporation.  And  the 
itreasurer  of  Cook  county  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  one-half  of  one  per  cent, 
.and  no  .more,  of  said  moneys,  as  a  full  compensation  for  receiving  ana  disburs- 
ing the  same. 

Sec.  14.  If  deemed  practicable  by  the  assessors,  separate  appraisements  and 
.assessments  shall  be  made;  one  for  that  part  of  the  said  boulevard,  ways, 
.building  line,  and  easements,  and  for  said  park,  building  line,  and  easements  to 
be  made  and  taken  north  of  Division  street;  one  for  the  same  between  Division 
.-street  and  Harrison  street;  and  one  for  the  same  south  of  Harrison  street.  The 
, benefits  assessed  sliaJl  be  the  real  and  appreciable  benefits,  and  the  assessments 
shall  not  in  any  case  be  -extended  over  any  land,  lots  or  parts  of  the  said  West 
Chicago  where  such  benefits  do  not  exist.  No  assessment  for  boulevard  or  park 
improvement  shall  be  made  until  further  authorized  by  the  general  assembly. 

Sec.  15.  For  the  expense  authorized  herein  for  surveys,  and  for  any  defi- 
ciencies and  necessary  outlays  arising  and  required  in  the  condemnation  afore- 
said, and  in  the  purchase  of  lands  and  property  tor  the  purposes  herein 
specified,  and  for  the  payment  of  tbe  expenses  of  maintaining  and  improving 
the  said  boulevard  and  parks,  and  of  inclosing  the  same,  where  deemed  neces- 
sary, and  for  draining  and  making  roadways  and  walks  upon  the  same,  and  for 
the  other  expenses,  disbursements  and  charges  in  the  premises,  said  commis- 
sioners shall  have  power  to  borrow,  as  they  shall  deem  expedient,  an  amount 
of  money  not  exceeding  fifty  thousand  dollars  ($50,  QUO)  in  the  aggregate,  and 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  5S 

for  a  time  not  exceeding  three  years,  and  at  a  rate  of  interest  not  exceeding  10 
per  cent,  per  annum;  and  to  issue  therefor  the  notes  or  obligations  of  the  said 
corporation,  which  shall  be  numbered  consecutively  from  No.  1,  and  shall  be 
signed  by  the  president  and  countersigned  by  the  secretary  of  said  board,  and 
shall  be  registered  accurately  and  minutely  in  a  register,  which  shall,  at  all 
times,  be  open  for  tlie  examination  of  the  public  ;  and  no  note  or  obligation 
made  as  aforesaid  shall  be  valid  for  an  amount  exceeding  the  sum  remaining  of 
said  $50,000,  as  appears  by  said  register,  or  until  the  same  shall  have  been  duly 
registered  in  said  register.  For  the  payment  of  the  principal  and  interest  of 
said  notes  and  oblig  itions,  the  town  of  West  Chicago  shall  be  irrevocably 
pledged,  and  also  the  proceeds  of  the  tax  hereinafter  authorized. 

Sec.  16.  The  adoption  of  the  proposition  "For  Boulevard  and  Parks,"  as 
hereinafter  specified,  shall  be  deemed  and  taken  to  be  the  consent  of  the  said  town 
of  West  Chicago  to  the  imposition  of  an  aimual  tax  of  one-half  (^)  of  one  (1) 
mill  for  boulevard  and  park  purposes,  as  hereinafter  provided.  It  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  clerk  of  the  county  court  of  Cook  county  to  set  down  in  the  general 
tax  warrants  of  each  year,  for  the  collection  of  state  and  count}'-  taxes,  in  a 
separate  column,  a  tax  of  one-half  (|)  of  one  (1)  mill,  to  be  styled  "  Boulevard 
and  Park  Tax,"  which  is  hereby  levied  upon  all  the  taxable  property  in  said 
town  of  West  Chicago;  and  shall  set  down,  in  said  column,  the  amount  of  said 
tax  chargeable  to  the  several  persons,  corporations,  lots  or  parcels  of  land 
liable  for  taxes  in  said  town  ;  and  the  collector  shall  proceed  to  collect  the 
same  in  the  maimer  now  provided  by  law  for  the  collection  of  state  and  county 
taxes;  and  all  the  provisions  of  law  in  respect  to  the  collection  of  state  and 
county  taxes,  and  proceedings  to  enforce  the  same,  so  far  as  applicable,  shall 
apply  to  said  assessments  and  taxes.  The  said  suras  of  money  shall  be  placed 
by  the  treasurer  of  said  county  of  Cook  to  the  credit  of  said  board,  and  shall  be 
drawn  by  said  board  from  the  county  treasury  by  a  warrant  signed  by  the 
president  and  secretary  of  the  board,  and  countersigned  by  the  auditor  to  be 
appointed  as  aforesaid,  and  in  no  other  way.  The  appointment  of  such  auditor 
shall  be  first  certified  by  such  president  and  secretary,  and  filed  in  the  office  of 
said  treasurer  of  Cook  county-. 

Sec.  17.  It  shall  be  lawful  for  said  commissioners  to  vacate  and  close  up  any 
and  all  public  roads  or  highways,  excepting  r^iilroads,  for  commercial  purposes 
which  may  pass  through,  divide  or  separate  any  lands  selected  or  appropriated 
by  them  for  the  purpose  of  a  park;  and  no  such  road  shall  ever  be  laid  out 
through  said  park,  except  such  as  the  said  commissioners  shall  lay  out  and  con- 
struct: Provided^  however,  That  neither  Lake  street,  Madison  street,  nor 
Twelfth  street,  nor  either  of  the  diagonal  avenues  or  roads  leading  into  said 
city,  nor  any  boulevard  or  horse  railway  track  of  any  person  or  corporation  now 
authorized  to  make  the  same,  shall  be  closed  under  the  provisions  of  this  sec- 
tion, but  the  same  may  be  worked  and  controlled,  when  and  so  far  as  within 
the  lines  of  either  of  said  parks,  by  the  said  board,  but  without  interrupting 
travel  over  the  same. 

Sec.  18.  The  said  commissioners,  or  either  of  them,  may  be  removed  f  om 
office  by  the  circuit  court  of  said  county,  after  trial  and  conviction,  upon  the 
petition,  with  sworn  charges,  presented  by  not  less  than  ten  (10)  reputable 
freeholders  of  said  town  of  West  Chicago,  and  if  it  shall  appear,  at  said  trial, 
that  the  said  commissioner  or  commissioners  iiave  been  guilty  of  misdemeanor 
or  malfeasance  in  office  under  this  act;  and  if  the  said  court  shall  remove  any 
of  said  commissioners  from  office  for  any  such  cause,  before  the  expiration  of 
his  or  their  term  of  office,  the  clerk  of  said  court  shall  certify  to  the  governor 
of  the  .'•■^of  lUinoia,  under  the  seal  of  the  court,  a  copy  of  the  final  judgment 
of  vemo^f.  The  president  and  secretary  of  the  board  shall  certify  to  the 
governor  all  other  vacancies  arising  or  occurring  in  the  same,  after  the  organi- 
zation thereof 

Sec.  19.  The  office  of  any  commissioner  under  this  act  who  shall  not  attend 
meetings  of  the  board  for  three  successive  months  after  having  been  duly 
notified  of  said  meetings,  without  reasons  satisfactorj''  to  the  board,  or  without 
leave  of  absence  from  said  board,  may  by  said  board  be  declared,  and  therefore 
shall  become,  vacant. 


54  The  Parhs  and  Property  Interests 

Sec.  20.  There  sball  be  nn  election  held  in  the  town  of  West  Chicapro  on 
the  fourth  Tuesday  of  March  next,  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  at  which  election 
the  legal  voters,  voting  at  said  election,  shall  vote  for  or  against  the  creation 
of  the  said  board  of  park  commissioners,  the  laying  out  and  making  of  the  said 
boulevard  and  parks,  with  their  appurtenances,  the  addition  of  said  sections  of 
land  above  described  by  numbers  to  said  city  and  said  town  of  West  Chicago, 
and  the  extension  of  tlie  limits  thereof,  and  the  imposition  of  the  tax  hereby 
declared  to  be  levied  ;  at  which  all  legal  voters  residing  in  the  said  added  ter- 
ritory shall  have  the  right  to  vote.  The  tickets  shall  be  printed  or  written: 
"  For  the  Boulevard  and  Parks,"  and  "  Against  the  Boulevard  and  Parks"  ;  and, 
if  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast  on  the  question  shall  be  "  For  the  Boulevard  and 
Parks,"  then  the  proposition  in  the  first  part  of  this  s^^ction  specified  shall  be 
held  to  be  consented  to  and  voted  by  the  said  town,  and  all  the  provisions  of 
this  act  relative  thereto  shall  take  effect  and  be  in  force,  with  the  other  pro- 
visions of  this  act,  but  not  otherwise  :  Providedy  howtver.  That  there  shall  be 
opened  in  the  said  territory  added  from  the  town  of  Jefferson,  at  the  house  of 
Henry  Jewell,  known  as  "Powell's  Tavern,"  a  poll  for  the  casting  of  the  votes 
of  said  last-mentioned  territory,  separately  ;  at  which  election  M.  N.  Kimbell, 
John  F.  Powell,  and  John  Hise,  shnll  be  judges  of  election,  and  the  legal  voters 
n  sident  therein  on  the  tenth  (10th)  day  of  February,  A  D.  1869,  mav  vote 
"For  Citv  Extension,"  and  "  Again^^t  City  Extension,"  and  "For  the  Boule- 
vard and  Parks,"  and  "  Against  tlie  Boulevard  and  Parks";  and  if  a  majority  of 
the  votes  so  cast  shall  be  "  Against  City  Extension  "  and  "  Against  the  Boule- 
v.trd  and  Parks,"  then  the  territory  herein  taken  from  said  town  of  Jefferson 
shall  not  become  a  part  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  or  of  the  town  of  West  Chicago, 
nor  shall  the  jurisdiction  of  said  city  be  extended  over  the  same,  but  the  same 
shall  remain  a  part  of  the  town  of  Jefferson,  the  same  as  if  this  act  had  not 
been  passed  ;  and  said  vote  shall  not  be  counted  with,  or  affect  the  vote  cast 
in,  the  remaining  territory  embraced  under  this  act.  The  clerk  of  the  county 
court  of  Cook  county  shall,  except  as  herein  otherwi.se  provided,  designate  the 
placesof  holding  such  election,  and  give  notice  thereof,  in  three  or  more  of  the 
daily  newspapers  published  in  the  county  of  Cook,  at  least  ten  (10)  days  preced- 
ing such  election,  and  there  shall  be  one  polling  or  voting  place  in 
each  voting  district  in  said  town,  as  the  same  was  fixed  at  the  last 
general  election  in  the  county  of  Cook,  except  as  herein  provided. 
The  persons  who  acted  as  judges  or  inspectors  of  election  in  the 
several  districts  of  said  town,  at  the  last  general  election  in  Cook 
county,  shall  be  the  judges  or  inspectors  of  this  election.  In  case  the 
judges  or  inspectors  of  election  shall  not  attend  at  the  time  for  opening  the 
polls,  such  judges  or  inspectors  shall  be  chosen  by  the  legal  voters  present. 
In  case  it  shall  be  necessary  to  do  so,  the  said  clerk  of  the  county  court  shall 
prescribe  districts  and  appoint  places  of  voting  in  the  added  territory  afore- 
said, at  which  the  legal  voters  present  shall  choose  the  judges  or  inspectors  of 
elfction.  The  clerks  shall  be  appointed  as  provided  in  elections  for  county 
officers.  The  polls  shall  be  opened  and  closed,  and  the  election  conducted  as 
elections  for  county  officers.  All  legal  voters  of  said  town  shall  be  entitled  to 
vote  at  such  election,  without  any  new  registration;  and  the  judges  or  inspectors 
of  such  election  shall  use  the  registry  list  made  for  the  general  election  in 
November.  A.  D.  1868;  and,  where  necessary  to  do  so,  said  county 
clerk  shall  obtain  copies  of  such  registry  lists  of  the  several  towns 
from  which  the  said  added  territory  is  taken,  and  furnish  them  in 
due  time  at  the  place  or  places  where  the  vote  or  votes  of  the  said 
added  territory  shall  be  taken:  Provided,  That  whenever  any  person  whose 
name  is  not  on  the  registry  list  shall  offer  hi^  vote  at  such  election,  the 
judges  or  inspectors  shall  require  the  same  evidence  of  his  qualification  as  now 
provided  by  law.  The  said  judges  of  election  shall,  immediately  after  the 
close  of  the  polls,  count  the  ballots,  fill  out  and  .sign  the  returns  and  tally- 
sheets,  as  now  provided  by  law  in  all  other  elections,  and  return  the  poll-books 
and  ballots  to  the  clerk  of  the  county  court,  as  in  other  cases  of  election. 
The  votes  shall  be  canvassed  in  the  manner  provided  by  law  for  the  election  of 
state  and   county  officers.     The   clerk  of   the   county  court  of  Cook  county 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  55 

shall,  immediately  after  such  canvass,  cause  a  certiticate  of  the  result  of  such 
election  to  be  filed  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state,  which  shall  be  con- 
clusive evidence  of  the  result  of  said  election. 

Sec.  21.  This  act  shall  be  deemed  a  public  act,  and  shall  be  in  force  from 
and  after  its  passage.  It  shall  be  liberally  construed  in  all  courts  and  places  ; 
and  all  acts  and  parts  of  acts  in  conflict  with  its  provisions,  or.  either  of 
them,   are    hereby  repealed. 


LINCOLIS'    PAEK/ 


This  Park  is  situated  in  North  Chicago,  on  the  lake  shore 
about  two  miles  north  of  the  river.  It  is  bounded  on  the  south 
by  the  old  city  cemetery.  Until  the  present  session  of  the  legis- 
lature this  park  covered  an  area  of  about  sixty  acres ;  addi- 
tions have  been  made,  or  the  city  has  obtained  legislative  au- 
thority for  such  additions,  which  will  make  the  park  to  contain 
about  two  hundred  acres.  For  the  past  three  years  the  city  has 
been  employed  leisurely  in  improving  the  park,  and  has  ex- 
pended upon  it  nearly  $75,000.  This  park,  with  the  exception 
of  Union  Park,  in  the  W  est  Division,  is  the  only  public  im- 
provement worthy  of  the  name  in  the  city.  The  natural  con- 
figuration of  this  park  is  perhaps  better  than  can  be  found  any- 
where else  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city.  It  is  composed  chiefly  of 
sand  hills,  with  little  valleys  and  ponds  between  them.  The 
great  difficulty  in  applying  to  it  the  rules  of  landscape  is  to  ob- 
tain black  and  tenacious  earth  sufficient  to  form  a  proper  surface 
upon  which  shrubbery  and  trees  may  be  expected  to  live  and 
thrive ;  but  this  latter  obstacle  has  been  removed  by  the  legis- 
lature in  its  recent  bill,  which  has  permitted  the  addition  of  a 
large  number  of  acres  to  this  park  on  the  north. 

The  boundaries  of  Lincoln  Park  are — on  the  south.  North 
avenue  from  Clark  street  to  the  Lake;  on  the  west,  Clark 
street  to  Franklin;  thence  north  on  Franklin  street  to  its 
intersection  with  the  old  lake  shore  ditch  and  thence  along  this 
ditch  to  Fullerton  avenue  ;  west  on  Fullerton  avenue  to  a 
point  five  hundred  feet   east  of  North  Clark  street ;   thence 


56  The  Parks  and  Property  Interests^  etc. 

north-west,  on  a  line  parallel  to  and  five  hundred  feet  east 
of  Clark  street,  to  the  center  line  of  section  28  ;  thence  east  to 
the  lake. 

About  two  and  one-half  miles  of  drives  are  already  in  exist- 
ence, and  the  park  has  a  large  number  of  trees  growing  within 
its  enclosure.  During  last  summer  a  series  of  out-door  concerts 
were  inaugurated,  which  appeared  to  be  the  source  of  much  en- 
joyment. The  work  has  progressed  so  far  that  nearly  every  one 
in  the  North  Division  is  proud  of  the  park,  and  no  property- 
holder  expresses  the  least  regret  that  he  is  one  of  the  parties 
who  must  pay  for  it. 

This  park  enjoys  one  other  advantage  which  no  other  park 
in  the  city  can  enjoy.  All  the  lake  commerce  of  Chicago,  rep- 
resented by  its  thousands  of  sail  vessels  and  its  steamers,  must 
pass  along  its  front.  Scarcely  an  hour  occurs  in  the  summer 
when  there  may  not  be  seen  what  would  seem  to  be  an  endless 
line  of  vessels. 

Lincoln  Park  is  at  present  the  most  central  of  any  of  our 
urban  parks.  As  has  been  stated,  it  is  but  two  miles  from  the 
river,  while  South  Park  is  from  five  to  eight  miles,  and  "West 
Park  can  hardly  be  less  than  four  miles  from  the  Court 
House.  To  reach  Lincoln  Park,  however,  the  people  have  yet 
no  means  of  railroad  transit  except  the  horse  cars,  and  it  will  be 
found  that  the  South  and  West  Parks  can  as  quickly  and  as 
cheaply  be  reached  by  the  steam  roads  as  Lincoln  Park  can  by 
means  of  the  horse  cars. 

The  value  of  real  estate  in  the  region  of  Lincoln  Park  has 
already  been  largely  enhanced,  and  the  people  living  in  its 
neighborhood  know  very  well  that  the  advantages  of  the  park 
will  more  than  compensate  for  all  the  taxes  which  may  be  levied 
for  its  improvement  and  maintenance. 

■  The  lake  shore  drive  or  boulevard,  which  is  projected  for 
this  park,  will,  when  it  is  completed,  be  one  of  the  finest  im- 
provements in  the  city.  The  design  is  to  have  it  commence  at 
Pine  street,  and  run  thence  along  the  lake  shore,  of  a  width 
of  two  hundred  feet,  until  it  reaches  the  southern  boundary  of 
Lincoln  Park.  The  Board  of  Public  Works  has  already  ma- 
tured the  plans  for  this  work,  and  its  execution  will  be  only  a 
matter  of  time. 


Parks  of  the  City  of  Chicago.  59 

THE   LAW   FOR  LINCOLN  PARK. 

The  following  is  a  fall  and  correct  copy  of  tlie  law  providing 
for  the  location  and  improvement  of  Lincoln  Park : 

Section  1.  Be.  U  enacted  hi  the  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  represented  in  (he 
General  Assembly,  That  all  of  the  land  situate  and  lying  within  the  following  boun- 
daries, to  wit  :  Commencing  at  the  intersection  of  North  avenue  in  the  city 
of  Chicago  and  county  of  Cook  with  Lake  Michigan,  and  running  thence  west 
along  said  North  avenue  to  North  Clark  street;  thence  along  North  Clark  street 
to  North  Franklin  street;  thence  along  North  Franklin  street  to  Fullerton 
avenue;  thence  along  Fullerton  avenue  to  the  west  line  of  the  south-east  quarter 
of  section  28,  in  township  40  north,  of  range  14  east  of  the  third  principal 
meridian ;  thence  along  said  west  line  to  the  north-west  corner  of  said  south-east 
quarter  of  section  28;  thence  along  the  north  line  of  said  south-east  quarter  to 
Lake  Michigan;  and  thence  along  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  at  low  water 
mark,  as  the  same  now  is  or  hereafter  may  be,  to  the  place  of  beginning — be, 
and  the  same  is  hereby  declared  to  be  a  public  park,  to  be  known  as  Lincoln 
Park,  and  shall  be  deemed  to  have  been  taken  by  the  city  of  Chicago  for 
public  use  and  for  a  public  park. 

Sec.  2.  All  of  said  land  now  belonging  to  the  city  of  Chicago  shall  be  and 
is  hereby  appropriated  for  such  park  without  any  compensation  to  the  city,  and 
the  title  of  any  of  said  land  not  now  owned  by  the  city  may  be  acquired  by 
said  city  by  purchase  or  condemnation,  as  herein  provided.  The  board  of 
commissioners  of  Lincoln  Park,  as  hereinafter  created,  may  purchase  any  of 
said  lands  at  fair  and  reasonable  prices,  to  be  determined  by  them  and  paid  for 
out  of  bonds  or  money  coming  to  their  hands  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  the 
title  thereto,  and  the  same  shall  be  conveyed  to  and  vest  in  the  city,  to  be  used 
as  a  part  of  the  park,  or  the  same  may  be  acquired  in  the  manner  hereinafter 
set  forth. 

Sec.  3.  Three  discreet  and  competent  freeholders,  citizens  of  Chicago,  shall 
be  appointed  by  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county,  within  three  months  after 
the  passage  of  this  act,  and  on  application  of  the  board  of  commissioners  of  said 
park,  to  act  as  appraisers  in  relation  to  the  taking  and  the  value  of  said  lands, 
mentioned  in  the  first  section  of  this  act  or  any  part  thereof,  and  in  case  of 
the  death,  resignation,  disqualification  or  refusal  to  act  of  either  of  said  apprais- 
ers, it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  said  circuit  court,  at  any  general  or  special  term 
thereof,  on  application  of  said  board  of  commissioners,  and  from  time  to  time, 
as  often  as  said  event  shall  happen,  to  appoint  any  other  discreet  or  disinter- 
ested person,  being  a  citizen  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  in  the  place  of  said  ap- 
praisers so  dying,  resigning  or  refusing  to  act,  and  said  appraisers  shall  proceed 
to  discharge  the  duties  of  their  appointment,  and  to  complete  their  estimate  and 
award,  as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be,  and  shall  file  their  final  report  in  the 
office  of  the  clerk  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county  within  three  months  of 
the  date  of  their  appointment. 

Sec.  4.  It  shall  be  competent  and  lawful  for  a  majority  of  said  board  of  ap- 
praisers, designated  as  aforesaid,  to  perform  the  trust  and  duties  of  their  appoint- 
ment; and  their  acts  shall  be  as  valid  and  efifectual  as  the  acts  of  all  the  apprais- 
ers so  to  be  appointed,  if  they  had  acted  therein,  would  have  been.  And  in 
every  case  the  proceedings  and  decisions  of  a  majority  in  number  of  said  board 
of  appraisers,  acting  in  the  premises,  shall  be  as  valid  and  effectual  as  if  the  said 
appraisers  appointed  for  such  purposes  had  all  concurred  and  joined  therein. 

Sec.  5.  The  appraisers  herein  provided  for  in  relation  to  the  taking  and  the 
value  of  any  of  the  lands  mentioned  in  the  first  section  of  this  act,  shall  make 
just  and  true  estimate  of  the  value  of  such  lands  and  of  the  loss  and  damage  to 
the  respective  owners,  lessees  and  parties  and  persons  respectively  entitled  to 
or  interested  in  the  same,  together  with  the  tenements,  hereditaments  and  ap- 
purtenances, privileges  or  advantages  to  the  same  belonging  or  in  anywise 
appertaining,  by  and  in  consequence  of  the  relinquishing  the  same  to  the  said 
city  of  Chicago;  and  in  making  said  estimate  they  shall   not  make  any  deduc- 


60  The  Pa/rhs  and  Property  Interests 

tion  or  allowance  for  any  supposed  advantages  to  be  derived  from  taking  said 
lands  as  public  places  or  in  consequence  thereof;  and  the  amounts  so  estimated, 
when  duly  confirmed,  shall  be  paid  as  hereinafter  in  this  act  provided.  When- 
ever such  estimate  shall  be  completed,  they  shall  file  the  same  with  the  clerk 
of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county,  and  thereupon  proceedings  may  be  had  to 
correct  or  confirm  the  same  as  in  this  act  provided. 

Sec.  6.  Said  appraisers  and  any  party  being  the  owner  of,  or  interested  in, 
any  of  the  lands  mentioned  in  this  act,"  may  agree  upon  the  value  thereof  and 
upon  the  amount  of  damages  and  compensation  to  be  awarded  therefor,  and 
said  appraisers  may  make  special  reports  in  relation  to  any  matter  so  agreed 
upon,  and  any  such  special  report  may  bo  filed  and  proceedings  may  be  had  to 
confirm  the  pame,  and  the  same  may  be  confirmed  in  the  same  manner  and  with 
like  effect,  as  is  provided  herein  with  relation  to  other  reports  of  said  apprais- 
ers; and  upon  the  confirmation  of  any  such  special  report,  the  amount  of  the 
awards  thus  confirmed  shall  be  paid  in  the  same  manner  as  if  such  awards  had 
been  made  in  a  general  report  of  said  appraisers  and  duly  confirmed. 

Sec.  1.  Before  proceeding  to  discharge  any  of  their  duties,  the  appraisers 
shall  respectively  take  and  subscribe  an  oath  in  writing  before  some  officer 
authorized  by  law  to  administer  oaths,  honestly  and  faithfully  to  discharge  the 
duties  which  may  devolve  upon  them,  in  pursuance  of  this  act,  which  oath 
shall  be  filed  in  the  ofiBce  of  the  clerk  of  the  county  court  of  the  county  of 
Cook.  Said  appraisers  shall  proceed  as  soon  as  may  "be  after  their  appointment 
to  discharge  the  duties  of  their  trust,  and  to  make  and  complete  their  estimates 
and  awards,  and  reports,  as  hereinafter  provided,  and  every  estimate,  *award 
and  report  so  made,  shall  be  signed  by  at  least  a  majority  of  said  appraisers, 
and  filed  in  the  office  of  the  circuit  court  of  the  county  of  Cook,  and  notice 
thereof  given  to  the  counsel  for  the  corporation  of  the  said  city  of  Chicago; 
within  ten  days  after  receiving  such  notice  of  the  filing  of  any  report  of  such 
board  of  appraisers,  said  corporation  counsel  shall  give  notice,  by  puhlica- 
tion,  for  ten  days,  in  at  least  two  daily  papers  of  the  said  city  of  Chicago, 
that  he  will,  at  a  term  of  said  circuit  court  designated  therein,  and  at  the  time 
and  place  to  be  designated  in  said  notice,  present  said  report  for  confirma- 
tion. And  if  said  corporation  counsel  shall  not,  within  the  time  prescribed, 
cause  such  notice  to  be  given,  and  the  report  to  be  presented  for  confirmation, 
then  such  notice  may  be  given,  and  said  report  may  he  presented  for  confirma- 
tion, as  above  described,  by  said  appraisers,  or  by  any  party  whose  lands  are  to 
be  taken,  and  to  whom  compensation  is  estimated  and  awarded  by  such 
report.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  said  court,  at  the  time  mentioned  in  said 
notice,  to  proceed  immediately  to  the  hearing  of  said  report,  and  it  shall 
have  priority  over  all  other  causes  pendihg  in  said  court.  The  said  court  shall 
pronounce  judgment  on  said  report,  and  shall  confirm  the  same  against  the 
several  lots  or  parcels  of  land  described  in  said  report  in  respect  to  which  no 
objections  shall  be  filed,  and  such  judgment  shall  be  a  lawful  and  sufficient  con- 
demnation of  the  lands  and  property  appropriated  and  sought  to  be  condemned 
and  not  objected  to;  and  the  court  shall  hear  and  determine  all  objections  in  a 
summary  way,  without  pleadings,  and  shall  and  may  on  such  hearing,  when 
objections  have  been  interposed,  render  such  judgment  as  shall  seem  proper, 
modifying  and  changing  such  assessment  as  it  shall  deem  proper,  and  any 
appeal  therefrom  shall  not  invalidate  or  affect  said  judgment  or  delay  the 
same,  except  as  to  the  property  described  in  said  appeal.  Such  judgment, 
as  far  as  not  appealed  from,  shall  be  a  lawful  and  sufficient  condemnation 
of  the  lands  and  property  appropriated,  and  any  appeal  shall  not  delay  the 
proceedings  under  said  judgment,  except  as  to  the  property  described  in  said 
appeal. 

Sec.  8.  Payment  of  the  damages  awarded  in  and  by  the  judgments  entered 
as  aforesaid  shall  be  made  immediately,  and  the  board  of  park  commissioners, 
as  hereinafter  appointed,  may  either  pay  such  damage  to  tlie  person  appear- 
ing to  be  entitled  to  the  same,  or  bring  into  the  said  circuit  court  and  deposit 
with  the  clerk  thereof  the  amount  of  such  damage,  specifying  at  the  time  of 
each  deposit,  in  a  written  report,  to  be  made  to  said  court,  the  several 
pieces  of  land  condemned,  and  which  are  paid  for  by  sa'd  deposit,  and  upon 


of  the  City  of  Chicago,  61 

payment  being  made  as  aforesaid,  the  said  lands  shall  vest  forever  in  the  said 
city  of  Chicago  for  the  purposes  and  uses  in  this  act  mentioned. 

Sec.  9.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  any  person  or  persons  owning  cemetery 
lots  included  within  the  lands  in  the  first  section  of  this  act  described  and 
to  be  condemned  by  said  commissioners,  to  remove  any  bodies  that  may  be 
therein  interred,  within  six  months  of  the  confirmation  of  so  much  of  the 
report  of  said  commissioners  as  relates  to  said  lots;  and  if  said  removal  shall 
not  be  made  within  six  months,  the  board  of  park  commissioners  may  at  any 
time  thereafter  make  such  removal. 

Sec.  10.  The  appraisers  shall  also,  as  a  part  of  Lincoln  Park,  lay  out  a 
drive  two  hundred  feet  wide  (so  that  the  east  line  shall  be  the  waters  of 
Lake  Michigan),  from  Pine  street  to  the  south  line  of  said  park,  and  shall 
proceed  to  make  an  assessment  for  the  payment  of  the  land  taken  for  the  same, 
according  to  the  provisions  of  the  charter  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  in  staking 
lands  for  the  opening  of  a  street,  and  shall  file  their  report  with  the  clerk 
of  the  circuit  court,  when  the  same  proceedings  shall  be  had  as  provided  in 
this  act  in  regard  to  the  lauds  to  be  taken  for  the  park.  The  said  circuit 
court  may  render  judgment  against  the  lands  and  lots  assessed  for  the  several 
amounts  assessed  for  benefits  remaining  unpaid,  and  the  collection  thereof 
shall  be  made  and  enforced,  as  in  the  case  of  collection  for  taxes,  and  the 
money  so  collected  shall  be  paid  to  the  park  commissioners,  and  by  them 
paid  to  the  several  persons  entitled  to  damages  for  lands  taken  for  such 
drive. 

Sec.^11.  Such  drive,  when  thus  laid  out,  shall  be  a  part  of  said  Lincoln 
Park,  and  shall  be  under  the  control  and  management  of  the  board  of  com- 
missioners to  the  same  extent  as  herein  provided  in  reference  to  said  park,  and 
it  shall  be  improved  by  the  same  means. 

Sec.  12.  For  the  purpose  of  paying  for  the  land  taken  for  such  park,  under 
the  provisions  of  this  act,  the  bonds  of  the  city  of  Chicago  to  such  an  amount 
as  shall  be  necessary  for  that  purpose,  shall  be  issued  by  the  mayor,  comptroller 
and  clerk  of  said  city,  from  time  to  time,  as  the  same  shall  be  required  by  the 
board  of  park  commissioners  for  the  purpose  aforesaid,  and  shall  be  delivered 
to  said  board  upon  demand,  and  said  bonds  shall  be  payable  twenty  years  from 
the  date  thereof,  and  shall  bear  interest  at  the  rale  of  seven  per  cent, 
per  annum,  payable  half  yearly  on  the  first  days  of  January  and  July  in 
each  year;  and  the  said  bonds  and  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  thereof,  shall  con- 
stitute the  fund  for  paying  the  cost  of  the  lands  taken  for  the  park. 

Sec.  13.  As  said  bonds  shall  from  time  to  time  issue,  the  comptroller  shall 
cause  to  be  kept  in  his  office,  in  a  book  to  be  provided  for  that  purpose,  a  true  and 
correct  statement  and  account  of  each  and  every  bond  by  him  executed,  showing 
the  number  of  each  bond,  and  the  date  and  amount  thereof,  and  the  time  when  due 
and  said  books  shall  be  open  for  public  inspection),  and  wbich  books  shall  be 
delivered  by  him  to  his  successor  in  office.  The  comptroller  shall  take  a  receipt 
from  the  person  authorized  by  said  board  to  receive  said  bonds. 

Sec.  14.  The  bonds  ot  the  city  of  Chicago,  which  shall  be  issued  by  virtue 
of  this  act,  may  be  used  by  said  board  of  commissioners  at  their  par  value  by 
paying  any  amount  which  said  city  shall  have  become  liable  to  pay  for  such 
lands  purchased  or  condemned  under  this  act,  or  the  same  may  be  sold  at  pub- 
lic or  private  sale,  or  subscription,  upon  such  terms  as  said  commissioners  shall 
determine;  and  the  said  board  of  park  commissioners  may  pledge  any  ot  said 
bonds  for  money  borrowed  temporarily,  at  an  ordinary  rate  of  interest,  not 
exceeding  ten  per  cent,  per  annum,  if  they  shall  deem  it  necessary  and  expedi- 
ent so  to  do. 

Sec.  1 5.  The  board  of  park  commissioners  shall  cause  a  full  description  of 
the  bonds  received  from  the  city  to  be  entered  in  a  record,  to  be  provided  for 
that  purpose,  which  shall  show  the  date,  number  and  amount  of  each  bond,  the 
time  when  received,  the  time  when  and  to  whom  sold,  and  the  amount  received 
therefor,  and  shall,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  April  in  each  year,  furnish  a 
copy  thereof,  verified  by  the  oath  of  the  custodian  of  such  records,  to  the  city 
comptroller. 

Sec.  16.     The  property  of  the  city  of  Chicago  and  the  lands  authorized  to 


62  The  Parhs  and  Pro]perty  Interests 

be  taken  by  this  act  for  a  public  park,  are  hereby  pledged  for  the  payment  of 
the  principal  and  interest  of  said  bonds. 

Sec.  n.  The  board  of  park  commissioners  hereinafter  mentioned  is  hereby 
autliorized,  and  it  shall  be  their  duty  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  October  in 
each  year,  to  fix  upon  the  amount,  not  exceeding  $75,000,  that  may  be  neces- 
sary to  be  expended  for  the  improvement  and  repair  of  said  park  and  drive 
during  the  next  succeeding  year,  and  certify  the  same  to  the  clerk  of  the  county 
county  court  of  Cook  county,  and  said  clerk  shall  apportion  said  amount  upon 
the  taxable  property  returned  by  the  assessors  of  North  Chicago  and  of  Lake 
View,  and  compute  the  same  as  a  part  of  the  taxes  due  and  payable  by  the 
owners  of  said  property  set  down  or  described  in  a  separate  column,  headed 
''  Lincoln  Park  Tax,"  and  the  same  shall  be  included  in  the  warrant  issued  for 
the  collection  of  taxes,  and  collected  as  other  taxes.  In  case  of  a  failure  to  pay 
the  same,  judgment  may  be  rendered  againsc  the  real  estate  assessed,  and  the 
like  proceedings  had  as  for  other  taxes.  The  taxes  so  collected  shall  be  paid 
to  the  park  commissioners,  and  used  by  them  in  improving  and  keeping  in  repair 
the  park  and  drive. 

Sec.  18.  The  appraisers  appointed  by  virtue  of  this  act  shall  have  authority 
to  employ  surveyors  and  to  use  any  map  or  file  belonging  to  said  city  or  to  said 
county  of  Cook,  and  to  cause  maps  to  be  made  as  may  be  necessary,  and  said 
appiaisers  shall  be  allowed  a  compensation  of  five  dollars  per  day  for  their 
time  actually  employed  in  discharging  their  duty  as  such  appraisers,  and  all 
such  compensation  and  the  necessary  expenses  in  discharging  their  duties  shall 
be  allowed  and  taxed  by  the  court  aforesaid  and  paid  by  said  city  of  Chicago, 
and  shall  be  added  to  and  become  a  part  of  the  cost  of  said  park. 

Sec.  19.  The  said  Lincoln  Park  shall  be  under  the  exclusive  control  of  a 
board  of  commissioners  to  consist  of  five  persons,  who  shall  be  named  and 
styled  The  Commissioners  of  Lincoln  Park.  A  majority  of  said  commissioners 
(in  office  for  the  time  being)  shall  constitute  a  quorum  for  the  transaction  of 
business,  but  no  action  of  said  board  shall  be  final  or  binding  until  it  shall  re- 
ceive the  approval  of  a  majority  of  said  board,  whose  names  shall  be  recorded 
in  its  minutes. 

Sec.  20.  E.  B,  McOagg,  John  B.  Turner,  Andrew  Nelson,  Joseph  Stockton, 
and  Jacob  Rehm,  are  hereby  appointed,  and  shall  constitute  the  first  board  of 
commissioners  of  Lincoln  Park.  They  shall  hold  office  as  such  commissioners 
for  five  years.  No  member  of  such  board  shall  receive  any  compensation  lor 
his  services.  In  case  of  a  vacancy  within  said  five  years,  the  same  may  be 
tilled  by  the  remaining  members  of  said  board,  and  all  vacancies  occasioned  by 
the  expiration  of  the  term  of  office,  shall  be  tilled  by  the  judge  of  the  circuit 
court  of  Cook  county . 

Sec.  21.  The  said  board  shall  have  full  and  exclusive  power  to  govern, 
manage  and  direct  the  said  park;,  to  layout  aud  regulate  the  same;  to  pass 
ordinances  for  the  regulation  and  government  thereof;  to  appoint  such  engi- 
neers, surveyors  and  other  officers,  except  a  police  force,  as  may  be  necessary; 
to  prescribe  and  define  their  respective  duties  and  authority;  to  fix  the  amount 
of  their  compensation  and  require  bonds  for  the  faithful  performance  of  their 
duties;  and  generally,  in  regard  to  said  park,  shall  possess  all  the  power  and 
authority  now  by  law  conferred  on  or  possessed  by  the  common  council  of 
said  city  in  respect  to  public  squares  and  places  in  said  city.  They  may  vacate 
any  public  street  or  alley  withm  the  limits  of  said  park,  and  shall  lay  out  a 
street  not  exceeding  one  hundred  feet  and  not  less  than  eighty  leet  in  width, 
north  from  Fulierton  avenue  along  the  west  line  of  of  said  park  to  the  north- 
ern boundary  thereof,  and  may  exercise  the  same  power  and  control  over  such 
street  as  the  rest  of  the  park. 

Sec.  22.  It  shall  be  a  misdemeanor  for  any  commissioner  to  be  directly  or 
Indirectly  in  any  way  pecuniarily  interested  in  any  contract,  or  work  of  any 
kind  whatever,  connected  with  said  park;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  any  com- 
missioner or  other  person  who  may  have  any  knowledge  or  information  of  the 
violation  of  this  provision  forthwith  to  report  the  same  to  the  mayor  of  the  city 
of  Chicago,  who  shall  present  the  facts  of  the  case  to  the  judge  of  the  circuit 
court  of  Cook  county.     Such    judge  shall  hear  in  a  summary  manner  such 


of  the  City  of  Chicago.  63 

commissioner  in  relation  thereto,  and  if  after  such  hearing  he  shall  be  satisfied 
of  the  truth  thereof,  he  shall  immediately  remove  the  commissioner  thus 
oflending,  subject  to  a  fine  and  imprisonment.  Every  commissioner  shall, 
before  entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  ofiBce,  take  and  subscribe  an  oath  faith- 
fully to  perform  the  duties  of  his  olfice,  which  oath  shall  be  filed  in  the  office 
of  the  said  clerk  of  the  circuit  court  of  the  county  of  Cook,  and  shall  each 
give  a  bond  in  the  penal  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  the  faithful  perform- 
ance of  his  duty,  and  payable  to  the  city  of  Chicago. 

Sec.  23.  Said  board  of  commissioners  for  the  government  of  said  park 
shall,  in  the  month  of  April  of  every  year,  make  to  the  common  council  of 
said  city,  a  full  report  of  their  proceedings  and  a  detailed  statement  of  all  their 
receipts  and  expenses  under  oath. 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  said  commissioners  to  let  all  amounts  exceeding  in 
amount  twenty-five  hundred  dollars  by  contract,  in  the  manner  provided  in  the 
charter  of  the  city  of  Chicago  for  letting  the  contracts  for  public  improve- 
ments. 

Sec.  24.  It  shall  be  lawful  for  the  commissioners  of  said  park  to  let,  from 
year  to  year,  any  building,  and  the  grounds  attactied  thereto,  belonging  to  said 
city,  which  may  be  within  the  limits  of  said  park,  until  the  same  shall  be 
required  for  the  laying  out  and  regulation  thereof,  when  the  said  buildings  shall 
be  removed,  except  such  as  may  be  used  for  the  purposes  of  such  park.  The 
said  commissioners  may  sell  any  building  or  other  material,  being  within  the 
limits  of  said  park  and  belonging  to  said  city,  which,  in  their  judgment,  shall 
not  be  required  for  the  purposes  of  said  park,  or  for  public  use,  and  the  pro- 
ceeds of  which  shall  be  deposited  to  the  credit  of  said  commissioners,  and 
devoted  to  the  improvement  of  the  park. 

Sec.  25.  None  of  the  said  commissioners,  nor  any  persons,  whether  in  the 
employ  of  the  said  commissioners  or  otherwise,  shall  have  the  power  to  create 
any  debt,  obligation,  claim  or  liability  for  or  on  account  of  said  board,  or  the 
moneys  or  properties  under  his  control,  except  with  the  express  authority  of 
said  board,  conferred  at  a  meeting  thereof,  duly  convened  and  held. 

Sec.  26.  The  ofiice  of  either  of  the  said  commissioners  who  shall  not  attend 
the  meetings  of  said  board  for  three  successive  months,  after  having  been  duly 
notified  of  said  meetings,  without  reasons  therefor  satisfactory  to  the  said  board, 
or  without  leave  of  absence  from  said  board,  may  be  by  said  board  declared 
vacant. 

Sec.  2*7.  It  shall  be  lawful  for  the  said  board  of  commissioners,  at  any 
meeting  thereof,  duly  convened,  to  pass  such  ordinances  as  ttiey  may  deem 
necessary  for  the  regulation,  use  and  government  of  the  park  under  their 
charge,  not  inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this  act.  Such  ordinances  shall, 
immediately  upon  their  passage,  be  published  for  ten  days  in  two  daily  papers 
in  said  city. 

Sec.  28.  The  person  offending  against  said  ordinances  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  shall  be  punished,  on  conviction,  before  any 
court  of  competent  jurisdiction  in  the  county  of  Cook,  by  a  fine  not  exceeding 
one  thousand  dollars,  or  by  imprisonment,  or  both,  in  the  discretion  of  the 
court. 

Sec.  29.  Real  and  personal  property  may  be  granted,  bequeathed  or  con- 
veyed to  said  city  of  Chicago  for  the  purpose  of  the  improvement  or  ornamenta- 
tion of  said  park,  or  for  the  establishment  or  maintenance,  within  the  limits  of 
said  park,  of  museums,  zoological,  or  other  gardens,  collections  of  natural 
history  or  works  of  art,  upon  such  trusts  and  conditions  as  may  be  prescribed 
by  the  grantors  and  donors  thereof,  and  agreed  to  by  said  board  of  park  com- 
missioners; and  all  property  so  devised,  granted,  bequeathedjjor  conveyed,  and 
the  rents,  issues,  profit  and  income  thereof,  shall  be  subject  to  the  exclusive 
management,  direction  and  control  of  the  commissioners  of  the  Park. 

Sec.  30.     This  act  shall  take  efiect  from  and  after  its  passage. 


Leading  Heal  Estate  Dealers  in  Chicago.        65 

GEO.  R.  CLARKE.  B.  P.  LAYTON.  CHA3.  P.  SILVA. 

CLARKE,  LAYTON  &  CO., 

REAL  ESTATE  AGENTS 

(ESTABLISHED   IN   1853,) 

128    Washington    Street, 

Adjoining  Chamber  of  Commerce, 


BUY    AND    SELL    REAL    ESTATE    ON    COMMISSION. 


MONET  INVESTED  FOR  NON-RESIDENTS. 


We  have  made  from  50  to  200  per  cent,  per  annum 
on  investments  for  non-residents,  dm-ing  the  last  three 
years. 

Refer  to  the  permanent  business  men  of  the  city. 


66        Leading  Real  Estate  Dealers  in  Chicagd. 

THOMAS  D.  SNYDER.  J,  LEWIS  LEE. 

SNYDER   &    LEE, 

EEAL    ESTATE 

AND 

LOAN    AGENTS, 

Eoom  4,  Metropolitan  Block, 

Corner  Handolpb.  and  La  Salle  Streets, 

OHICAaO,    ILLINOIS. 


REAL  ESTATE  PURCHASED,  MANAGED  AND  SOLD. 


TAXES   PAID   FOR   NON-RESIDENTS. 


Loans  mads  on  Real  Estate  in  Chicago  for  a  term  of  years. 


Leading  Real  Estate  Dealers  in  Chicago.         6T 

HENRY  WHIPPLE.  WM.  M.  TRUE. 

WHIPPLE  &  TRUE, 

REAL  ESTATE  AGEIJTS 

"    Rooms  4  and  5   Lombard  Block, 
1074  MONROE  STREET, 

(First  Bnildins  West  of  Post  Offics.)  CHIOAGrO,    ILL. 


Houses  and  Lots  bought  and  sold  on  commission  ; 
Loans  Negotiated  ;  Houses  Rented  and  Rents  Col- 
lected ;   Taxes  Paid  for  non-residents. 

Parties  makina:  their  investments  throu2:h  us  can 
rely  upon  having  their  interests  carefully  guarded. 
We  intend  to  keep  ourselves  thoroughly  posted  in 
regard  to  property  in  this  city  and  vicinity,  and  solicit 
correspondence  from  parties  seeking  information  on  the 

subject. 

» ■ 

li  E  F  E  R,  E:  ]V  O  E  S . 

HON.  GRANT  GOODRICH.  J.  V.  FAR  WELL,  Esq. 

CU^HMAN,  HARDIN  &  BRO.,  B.tnkers.        HENRY  F.  FAMES,  Esq., 

Rev.  LUKG  HITCHCOCK,  D.D.,  Cincinnati.  Pren't  Commercial  National  BanJc. 

Ebv.  T.  M.  eddy,  D.D.  'Rav.  SAM'L  C.  JACKSON,  D.D-,  Boston,  Mass. 


68        Leading  Meal  Instate  Dealers  in  Chicago, 

S.  H.  KERFOOT.  J.   F.  PIERSON. 

Chicago  Real  Estate  Agency 

OF 

S.  H.  KERFOOT  <&;  CO., 

Bstablislied.    Seventeen    Years. 

We  have,  since  1853,  been  uninterruptedly  engaged  in  the 

General  Real  Estate  Agency  &  Brokerage 

IN    THE  GROWING    CITY  OF 

CHICuf^LOO,     ILLITVOIS- 


"We  manage  Estates  and  pay  Taxes  in  ILLINOIS,  "WISCONSIN.  IOWA,  MINNESOTA, 
and  the  North- West  gi-nerally.  We  buy  and  sell  Real  Estate  for  residents  and  non-residents. 
We  have,  at  our  own  expense,  compiled  a  most  complete  ATLAS  OF  CHICAGO,  showinf; 
all  subdivisions  of  Lot"  and  Blocks,  the  sizes  and  locations  of  the  same,  and  giving  every 
Information  regarding  Chicafro  City  Real  Kstate  which  an  Atlas  can  be  made  to  give.  Our 
Office  Real  Estate  BulKtin  always  shows  a  Choice  and  Desirable 

Iiist  of  liots,  Blocks,  Lands,  River   Fronts.  Manufacturing  and 
Business  Property,  al-nrays  for  sale. 

To  Capitalists  seeking  investments  we  offer  every  inducement  to  consult  our  Office,  and 
wo  pledge  ourselves  to  do  our  very  best  to  protect  their  interests. 

The  Unparalleled  Growth  of  Chicago. 

The  unquestionable  reality  of  her  increase  in  COMMERCE,  MANUFACTURKS,  RAIL- 
ROADS, GRAIN  TKADK,  LUMBER  BUSINESS,  and  all  lines  of  traffic,  makes  the  growth 
certain  to  continue.  The  CONTINUANCE  OF  THE  GROWTH  OF  CHICAGO,  even  at  a 
moderate  and  healthy  pace,  makes 

Chicago   Meal    Estate  Investments  better  than  any  Stocks, 
or  Bond  and  Mortgage. 

^^  We  do  NOT  advise  buying  and  selling.  We  counsel  permanent  investments.  These 
when  judiciously  made,  always  pay  when  held  for  a  few  years. 

We  invite  correspondence  and  inquiry,  personally  or  by  letter,  and  will  promptly  give 
the  information  asked.  • 

Our  Senior  Partner  is  the  President  of  the  Chicago  Board 
of  Beal  Estate  Brokers,  and  its  rules  govern  our  o£B.ce. 

•-•-> 


The  Presidents  and  Cashiers  of  the  First,  Sec- 
'  ond  and  Third  National  Banks,  Chicago. 

Sol.  A.  Smith,  President  Merchants'  Loan 
and  Trust  Company,  Chicago. 

Hon.  Wm.  Bross,  President  Manufacturers' 
National  Bank,  Chicago. 

The  Chicago  Commercial  community  gener- 
ally. 

Charles  Macalester,  Esq.,  Philadelphia. 

William  G.  Harrison,  Esq.,  Baltimore. 

Bobert  J.  Brent,  Esq.,  " 


Thos.  H.  Faile,  Esq.,  Water  St.,  cor  of  Pine, 

New  Torlc. 
John  Ferguson,  Esq.,  85  Pine  St.,  New  York. 
Franklin  Haven,  Esq.,  Merchants'  National 

Bank,  Boston. 
Peter  Hubbel,  Esq.,  Charlestown  and  Boston. 
John  H.  Shoenberger,  Esq.,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Hon .  Lyman  Trumbull,  Washington,  D.  0. 
Hon.  Norman  B.  Judd,  "  " 

Hen.  John  F.  Farnsworth,       "  " 

Hon.  Kobert  C,  Schenck,  "  " 


Leading  Heal  Estate  Dealers  in  Chicago.        69 


G.  S.  HUBBARD,  Jr.,  &  JACKSON, 


REAL  ESTATE  AGENTS 


1^1    Dea.rbor'n    Street, 


CIiI0.A.C3-0 


Property  Bought,  Sold  and  Rented,  on  Commission. 


PARTICULAR    ATTENTION    PAID    TO    THE    INTERESTS    OF 
NON-RESIDENTS. 


70        Leading  Meal  Estate  Dealers  in  Chicago, 


SAMUEL  DELAMATER. 


WILLIS  e.  JACKSON. 


DELAMATER   &   JACKSON, 


REAL  ESTATE  BROKERS 

121  South  ClarTi  Street^ 

CHICAGJ^O,   ILL.: 


3R003S<C    1. 


We  have  at  all  times  on  our  books  a  large  list  of  Improved  and  Unimproved 
Property,  in  all  three  Divisions  of  the  City.  "We  invest  money  for  corres- 
pondents, and  can  give  the  best  of  references  to  those  for  wliom  we  have  already 
invested  largely  and  satisfactorily,  without  their  having  ever  seen  our  City. 
We  pay  Taxes,  Collect  Renti^,  and  attend  to  the  general  interests  of  non- 
residents. We  invite  all  persons  coming  to  our  city  to  make  investments,  to 
give  us  a  call,  and  all  who  wish  to  invest  without  coming,  to  notify  us  of  their 
wi-hr>s  by  mail.     We  can  give  all  such  very  U'^eful  information. 

Cnninierri;il  Xationfil  Bank,  Chicago.  Adams  National  Bank,  North  Adams,  Mass. 

Fourth  Niitional  Bank,  Chicago.  Shelberne    Falls    National    Bank,    Shelbern© 

Falls,  Mass. 


Leading  Ileal  Mstate  JDedlers  in  Chicago.        1 1 

JOHN  G.  SHORTALL.  LOUIS  D.  HOARD. 

SHORTALL  &  HOARD, 
Conveyancers. 


ABSTRACTS  OF  TITLE 

To,  and  Information  Furnished  concerning 

All  the  Real  Estate  in  Cook  Co. 


No.    lo    LARMON   BLOCK, 

CLARK   STREET, 

Opposite  the  Court  House,  V-»niC3,gO,   111. 


72        Leading  Beal  Estate  Dealers  in  Chicago. 

A.  J.  AVERELL.  G.  M.  HIQGINSON. 

AVERELL  &  HIGGINSON, 

EAL    ESTATE 

BROKERS, 

No.     7     IVTetropolitan     Block, 
CHICAGO,    ILLII^OIS. 


Sell  on  Commission  First  Class  Business  and  Resi- 
dence Property,  centrally  located,  Improved  and  Unim- 
proved ;  also  Lands  by  the  Acre  in  the  City  of  Chicago 
and  its  Suburbs. 


A  large  list  of  Valuable  Property  now  for  sale,  to 
which  the  attention  of  the  public  is  respectfully 
directed. 


Leading  Real  Estate  Dealers  in  Chicago.         73 


OLLIlSlGEE,  WALLER  &  CO., 


REAL  ESTATE  BROKERS, 


Hoom  7,  Union  Bnilding, 


Oorner    La  Salle   and  "Wasliington   Sts., 


HAVE  A  LARGE  LIST  OF 


IMPKOYED    AND    UNIMPEOVED 


PEOPEETY 


IN   ALL    PARTS    OF   THE    CITY. 


ACRE  PROPERTY  A   SPECIALTY. 


74         Leading  Ileal  Estate  Dealers  in  Chicago. 


GEORGE    H.    ROZKT, 


EEAL    ESTATE 


BROKER. 


ROOM    NO.   14    UNION    BUILDING, 


C  H  I  O  A.  G  O. 


Leading  Meal  Estate  Dealers  in  Gliicago.  IS 


I 


H.  H.  HONORE, 


REAL  ESTATE  BROKER 


BUYS    AND   SELLS   PROPERTY 


O^  COMMISSION 


No.   94  Dearborn  Street, 


omo^^  C3-0. 


S.   H.  KERFOOT. 


J.   F.   PIERSON. 


» 


Chicago  Real  Estate  Agency 

OF 

S.  H.  KERFOOT  &  CO., 

Established    Seventeen.    Years. 

We  have,  since  1852,  been  uninterruptedly  engaged  in  tlie 

General  Eeal  Estate  Agency  &  Brokerage 

IN    THE  GROWING    CITY  OF 

CHICAOO,     ILLIIVOIS. 


We  manage  Estates  and  pay  Taxes  in  ILLINOIS,  WISCONSIN,  IOWA,  MINNESOTA, 
and  the  Nortii-West  generally.  We  buy  and  sell  Real  Estate  for  residents  and  non-residents. 
We  have,  at  our  own  expense  compiled  a  most  complete  ATLAS  OF  CHICAGO,  showing 
all  subdivisions  of  Lot.-*  and  Blocks,  the  sizes  and  locations  of  the  same,  and  giving  every 
information  regarding  Chicago  City  Real  Estate  which  an  Atlas  can  be  made  to  give.  Our 
■Office  Real  Estate  Bulli-tin  always  shows  a  Choice  and  Desirable 

last  of  liots,  Blocks,  Lands,  River   Fronts,   Manufacturing  and 
Business  Property,   al-nrays   for   sale. 

To  Capitalists  seeking  investments  we  offer  every  inducement  to  consult  our  Office,  and 
■we  pledge  ourselves  to  do  our  very  best  to  protect  their  interests. 

The  Unparalleled  Growth  of  Chicago. 

The  unquestionable  reality  of  her  increase  in  COMMERCE,  MANUFACTURKS,  RAIL- 
ROADS, GRAIN  TKADK,  LUMBER  BUSINKSS,  and  all  lines  of  traffic,  makes  the  growth 
•certain  to  continue.  The  CONTINUANCE  OF  THE  GKOWTH  OF  CHICAGO,  even  at  a 
moderate  and  healthy  puce,  makes 

Chicago   Meal    Estate  Investments  better  than  any  Stocks, 
or  Bond  and   Mortijage. 

^^~  We  do  NOT  advise  buying  and  selling.  We  counsel  permanent  inv.stments.  These, 
when  judiciously  made,  always  pay  when  held  for  a  few  years. 

We  invite  correspondence  and  inquiry,  personally  or  by  letter,  and  will  promptly  give 
the  information  asked. 

Our  Senior  Partner  is  the  President  of  the  Chicago  Board 
of  B.eal  Estate  Brokers,  and  its  rules  govern  our  office. 


ItEFERIi^IVCES. 


The  Presidents  and  Cashiers  of  the  First,-  Sec- 
ond and  Third  National  Banks,  Chicago. 

fiol.  A.  Smith,  President  Merchants'  Loan 
and  Trust  Company,  Chicago. 

Hon.  VVm.  Bross,  President  Manufacturers' 
Natioml  Bank,  Chicago. 

The  Chicag'i  Commercial  community  gener- 
ally. 

Charles  Micalester.  Esq.,  Philadelphia. 

William  G.  Harrison,  Esq.,  Baltimore. 

Kobert  J.  Brent,  Esq.,  " 


Tho3.  H.  Faile,  Esq.,  Water  St.,  cor  of  Pine, 

New  Torlv. 
John  Ferguson,  Esq.,  3.5  Pine  St.,  New  York. 
Franklin  Haven,  Esq  .  Merchants'  National 

Bank,  Boston. 
Peter  Hubbel,  Esq.,  Charlestown  and  Boston. 
John  H.   Shoenberger,  Esq,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Hon.  Lyman  Trumbull,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Hon.  Norman  B.  Judd,  "  " 

Hon.  John  F.  Farnsworth,        "  " 

Hon.  Hobert  C.  Scheuck,  "  " 


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